“I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things… And I feel ordinary. Inside.
But I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away
screaming in playgrounds. I know
ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go…. My name is August, by the
way. I won’t describe what I look
like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably
worse.”
August Pullman was born with a birth defect that left him
with a severe facial deformity. August
would wear a helmet when he was little so people wouldn’t stare at him. His favorite holiday has always been
Halloween, “I get to go around like every other kid with a mask and nobody
thinks I look weird. Nobody takes a
second look. Nobody notices me. Nobody knows me.”
Homeschooled during his elementary years, August’s
parents decide that he should attend a private school starting in the fifth
grade, the start of middle school. We
experience the story through August’s eyes, as well as the perspectives of some
of his friends and his sister, each giving their own viewpoint of their
relationship with August and the cruelty that he faces from others on a daily
basis.
Wonder by
R.J. Palacio teaches life lessons of acceptance, kindness and respect and
should be read by everyone ten years of age or older. While there is cruelty and meanness in this
world, there is also goodness, kindness and compassion that we can find from
people in this world as well.
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