Wonder – a fantastic book that will forever remain in your heart

“Sometimes you can’t blend in, no matter how hard you try.”

August (Auggie) Pullman is not an ordinary boy. His family thinks he is, but he thinks the word ‘ordinary’ just doesn’t feel right to him. Wonder, by R. J. Palacio, is a book about a 10 year-old boy called Auggie. He was born with something that makes him stand out from others; he was born deformed. “Ever since I was little, I would always have surgeries.” Auggie always had surgeries, and perhaps because of this, he was homeschooled by his Mom. He had a few friends, Christopher, and Zachary.  When Auggie was four, Christopher moved to Bridgeport, so he barely got to see him – and since Christopher started going to public school Auggie didn’t see him that often either.

Ever since he was little, going outside was awkward for him. He would get stared at and people would whisper about it. His sister Via just can’t stand it. Via’s friend Miranda gave him an astronaut’s helmet when he was five. Since then, whenever he went outside, he wore the helmet, until he was seven, when he lost it.

“Via was ordinary. In fact she was the most ordinary girl ever.” Sometimes, Auggie just couldn’t understand why he was so unordinary. The rest of his family was. It was just him who wasn’t. August was home schooled until he was in 5^th grade. His mom thought that he should try to go to school since his surgeries were done. He would start in middle school. His mom thought that would be a good place to start – after all, half of the other kids would be new too. August decided to go to school, and he made a few friends, Jack and Summer. Jack was his assigned friend and Summer was just a girl August met at lunch. Everything was going smoothly until Halloween. August told everyone he was going to be Darth Vader but he changed last minute. Unexpectedly, when he walked into class that day, he heard something unexpected from Jack. Jack told another person that if he had a face like Jack’s that he would kill himself. After that, August never talked to Jack again. Not too long after, a war started among the boys, in which it was Jack and August against all the other boys. The leader was a cocky boy named Julian. He was one of those boys who all the parents thought was an angel, but was a devil amongst all his peers. During this time, August still wasn’t talking to Jack until Jack got suspended for punching Julian in the nose because he was defending August. At the end, August had a successful year and made on the honor roll.

One memorable part that I enjoyed was when August and Jack go to camp for 4 days with their class. August needed to go to the bathroom and Jack went with him. He ended up getting lost with two high school boys and two people that were friends with Julian, Miles and James. Miles ended up with a bloody knee, Jack with a bloody nose and August lost his hearing aids.

I really enjoyed this book and I hope you will too.