Wonder

By R.J. Palacio

New York:  Random House (2012)

It had been a very long time since I'd picked up a book from the JF section of the library, so I knew it would be very interesting to travel back in time to that middle-school world of scary new experiences and insecurities. The very first page of RJ Palacio's Wonder took me right there.

From that first page, the reader knows that August "Auggie" Pullman is special.  Because of a rare birth defect, 10-year-old Auggie's face is severely deformed, despite dozens of surgeries aimed to help.  He knows he looks different, and describes in painful realism many different encounters he has had throughout his life in which people are horrified and shocked by his looks.  As a result, he is even more nervous about starting middle school--he has never been to school before and does not really want to go now.  The rest of the story follows August's life as he struggles with various middle-school evils:  bullies, the lunch room, hard class work, and the complicated social system in which friend groups seem exclusive and permanent to an outsider like August.  Along the way, he has to learn how to handle being outcast, made fun of, and talked about for his looks.  In the end (I won't give away the whole story!) Auggie understands himself better and, even, comes to accept the way he looks as something that makes him unique, but does not define him.

These revelations also help many other characters in Auggie's school.  At the beginning, almost everyone shuns him, and the social circles mess with him more than most other kids.  However, as we read his story, the perspective shifts from August to other friends and family members, each told in a distinctive voice and style.  I think that this is one of the great strengths of this book.  As the reader switches back and forth, we are getting multiple points of view of the same story and, as a result, we see what August can't yet:  he is impacting so many people in a very positive way just by being himself.  One example of this is when Summer, one of his only friends, is invited to a party with the popular kids, who tell her that if she stopped hanging out with August, she could be "one of them."  Instead of caving under peer pressure, Summer calls home and asks to leave.  This strength of character is the first sign that August will be alright in middle school:  if he has one friend standing by him no matter what, he will be able to get through tough times.

Another strength of this novel is the fact that the experiences August has are typical ones, made atypical only by his unusual looks.  For instance, he gets into a fight with his best friend, Jack, and the two have to apologize and make up.  He has science projects and social studies projects.  He has birthday parties; dresses up for Halloween; attends school plays.  These are events to which so many children can relate, and the insecurities that August wears on his sleeve, many children feel inside.  I think that sometimes, an extraordinary example is used to illustrate feelings that everyone has.  In this case, students entering fifth grade all share anxieties that they won't fit in, won't be popular enough, won't have anyone to sit with at lunch.  But August Pullman sets an example that if you are true to yourself, good people will find you.  More importantly, you might just find the good in people that, at first glance, seemed not to be there.

This story is about a boy's journey through fifth grade, but it is also a story of overcoming fears, growing up, and accepting yourself and those around you whom you don't understand.  One of my favorite sections of the novel is on page 252, in August's chapter "Known For:"  "As much as I love Star Wars, I don't want that to be what I'm known for.  Everyone's known for something in middle school....I'm not sure what I want to be known for, but it's not that.  That's not exactly true:  I do know what I'm really known for.  But there's nothing I can do about that.  A Star Wars duffel bag I could do something about."  This quote shows tremendous growth on August's part, who, at the beginning of the story covered up his face by any means possible and hated being recognized.  This shows that he is beginning to embrace his differences from other people, but that he is comfortable enough to know now that he can be known for other things as well.  When people finally took the time to get to know August and treat him like just another person, he began to think of himself the same way.  In the end, he is celebrated for his differences, just as we should celebrate our students' differences and use them as teaching and learning activities.

The messages in this book are great for students in this awkward transition period.  I found it unique that instead of only leaving the reader to figure out the themes, Palacio also used one of the teachers as a "voice of reason." The precepts this teacher shared with his students are then listed together at the end of the book.  This was very clever, because it means that readers who may not have gotten each of these themes from the story itself can still think about their implications.  Auggie's precept, of course, is a great ending point for the story, and I think for this blog post as well:

"Everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their life because we all overcometh the world" (p. 313).

If students believed in themselves the way August learns to, middle school might be an easier place.  Until that happens, August Pullman sets a great example.