This month we read Wonder by R. J. Palacio
(Published 2013, 315 pages)
Book it Sister’s Grade:A-
You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.
My name is August. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.
August Pullman wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things. He eats ice cream. He plays on his Xbox. He feels ordinary – inside.
But Auggie is far from ordinary. Ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go.
Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life, in an attempt to protect him from the cruelty of the outside world. Now, for the first time, he’s being sent to a real school – and he’s dreading it. All he wants is to be accepted – but can he convince his new classmates that he’s just like them, underneath it all?
Narrated by Auggie and the people around him whose lives he touches forever, WONDER is a funny, frank, astonishingly moving debut to read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.
Here is our report:
| Judy Bush | A- | I enjoyed the book, and the fact that there were many good characters in it who helped the boy with the deformity. The added chapter about the bully was somewhat interesting, but also somehow seemed to mitigate the culpability of the character. |
| Janet Maisel | ||
| Mary Halsey | A | I loved the value of each individual in this book. Kindness is powerful and we all can be a little kinder to all...even ourselves. |
| Tricia Gadberry | ||
| Suzanne Rigby | A- | I thoroughly enjoyed Wonder. I thought it was a great way of presenting the story from the different points of view of the characters. It was a great journey with Auggie. Well constructed, well developed characters and a great moral. Kindness is never out of style! |
| Denise Link | ||
| Cheryl Clowes | A | I really liked this book's message of kindness and courage. The main character, Auggie, had a great sense of humor and understanding of a much older person. I enjoyed reading from the different points of view too. I would recommend this book to anyone. |
| Nina Yatsko | ||
| Megan Lewis | ||
| Carolyn Clowes | B | I think it is a good lesson about not judging a person by his/her face or cover, but learn his/her personality. That is how I look at people now instead of judging them. |