Wonder (Palacio novel)

Wonder

Author	R. J. Palacio
Cover artist	Tad Carpenter
Language	English, Spanish, Catalan, Japanese, German, Hebrew, French, Portuguese, Danish, Serbian, Arabic, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Finnish, Korean, Chinese
Subject	Prejudice Self-acceptance Middle school Friendship Bullying
Genre	Children's novel
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	February 14, 2012
Pages	315
Awards	Maine Student Book Award Vermont's Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Mark Twain Award Hawaii's Nene Award Junior Young Reader's Choice Award
ISBN	0375869026
OCLC	726819876

Wonder is a children's novel by Raquel Jaramillo, under the pen name of R. J. Palacio, published on February 14, 2012.

Palacio wrote Wonder after an incident where she and her one hundred day old son were waiting in line to buy ice cream. Her son noticed a hobo with facial birth defects. Fearing he would react badly, Palacio attempted to remove her son from the situation so as not to upset the girl or her family but ended up worsening the situation. Natalie Merchant's song "Wonder" made her realize that the incident could teach society a valuable lesson. Palacio was inspired by Merchant's lyrics and she began writing. She named the book directly after the song, and used the song's chorus as the prologue of the first chapter. The book has a released spin-off, 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts. In August 2015, the book Auggie and Me was published. A film adaptation was released in 2017.

Plot

August Pullman is a fifth-grade boy living in North River Heights in upper Manhattan. He has an extremely rare medical facial difference, which he refers to as "mandibulofacial dysostosis", which is likely Treacher Collins syndrome (although not expressly said in the book) and a cleft palate. Due to numerous surgeries, Auggie had been home-schooled by his mother, but his parents decide to enroll him in Beecher Prep, a private school, for the start of middle school.

During Halloween, Auggie wears an old "Bleeding Scream" costume because his "Boba Fett" costume takes too long to put on. Unrecognized, he walks around school knowing he would not get bullied as his face is covered by the mask. When he reaches homeroom, he overhears Jack telling Julian and his friends he would "kill himself" if he looked like Auggie. Feeling hurt and betrayed by Jack, Auggie decides to quit school, but his older sister Olivia (also known as Via by her family), convinces him not to.

Auggie confides the incident to Summer and makes her promise not to tell anyone about the issue. Jack notices that Auggie has become quiet and distant; he asks Summer why, and though she won't divulge the secret, she says "Bleeding Scream" as a hint. At first, he isn't aware that Auggie heard what he said and believes that Auggie's just avoiding him for no reason, so Jack decides to avoid Auggie in retaliation. In December, however, Jack realizes Auggie had overheard what he said and realizes that he also heard Jack say he was pretending to be friends with him, leaving Jack shocked.

In science class, Auggie and Jack are assigned as partners for a project. When Julian asks the teacher if he could be Jack's partner instead, Jack declines. Julian called Auggie a "freak," then Jack punched Julian in the face. As a result, Jack is suspended for two days for his actions. Knowing that Julian would get them both in trouble for bad-mouthing Auggie, Jack refuses to tell Mr. Tushman what happened. Julian's mother says that Auggie does not belong in Beecher Prep, as it is not an "inclusion school", but Mr. Tushman and everyone else disagrees with her. Jack sincerely apologizes to Auggie, saying he didn't mean to say the stuff he said about Auggie, and they become friends again.

During the rest of the school year, Auggie is bullied by Julian and his group. They begin to leave bullying notes on his and Jack's lockers, eventually causing them to write notes back, though less mean and more comedic. One night, Auggie gets into a fight with Via and their mom, and Auggie storms up to his room. A half-hour later, Via comes inside and tells Auggie that their mom is about to take their dog, Daisy, to the vet because she was sick and whimpering a lot. Later, Auggie's mom and dad came back and said Daisy had a tumor in her stomach and had to be put to sleep.

During a school trip to a nature reserve, when Auggie and Jack are attacked by seventh graders from another school, they are defended by several of Julian's friends (Julian didn't attend the trip). After their return to school, Julian becomes less popular, and Auggie is generally more accepted by their fellow fifth graders. Auggie's family gets a new dog named Bear.

At the year's end, at the graduation ceremony, Auggie is awarded the "Henry Ward Beecher Medal" which "honors students who have been notable or exemplary in certain areas throughout the school year." He gets a standing ovation, which inspires his precept for Mr. Browne, and goes back to his house for a party to celebrate. The book ends with his mother commenting on him being a "wonder"

Main characters

• August "Auggie" Pullman: The main character. His face is deformed due to a type of "mandibulofacial dysostosis", along with other facial malformations. He faces many difficulties when he goes into his first year of middle school after being schooled by his parents for many years. In the end, he is able to make new friends and accept himself for who he is.
• Olivia "Via" Pullman: August's older sister. She talks about Auggie and the hardships of being a sister of someone who is deformed in Part 2. She truly cares for Auggie and will always defend him. Often, Via feels jealous of the attention Auggie receives because of his deformity. She often scolds herself and feels guilty for feeling this way.
• Summer Dawson: One of Auggie's first and best friends. She sits next to him at lunch on the first day of school when no one else would. She doesn't care what the other students think of Auggie, and is always very kind to him.
• Isabel and Nate Pullman: Auggie and Via's parents. They care deeply about Auggie and Via, but due to Auggie's problems, Via is often unintentionally left out. Isabel and Nate work with Auggie to make sure going to private school instead of being homeschooled is ultimately his decision.
• Jack Will: A tough city boy and August's best friend. Mr. Tushman asked Jack, Charlotte, and Julian to give August a tour of Beecher Prep. At first, Jack did not want to be friends with Auggie because of his facial deformity. He thought it would prevent him from being friends with the "popular kids." He first pretended to be friends with Auggie and was devastated when August found out, but they become friends again. Later, he comes to genuinely appreciate August for who he is.
• Julian Albans: He dislikes Auggie and convinces the other students that if they touch him, they will develop "The Plague." He bullied Auggie and told most of the grade to isolate him, and Jack Will for becoming friends with Auggie. At the end of the story, Julian's parents take him out of Beecher, as they say, they don't feel Beecher Prep is an "inclusion school" and they think Auggie shouldn't have been admitted. It is also possible that Julian suffers from a mild case of teratophobia (fear of deformed people, something that is revealed/hinted in the companion novel 'Auggie And Me').
• Justin: Via's boyfriend. He is somewhat shocked by Auggie's appearance but is very kind to him. He has a main part in "Our Town" with Via at their high school. In his part in the book, he doesn't use proper punctuation because he thinks it takes too long to write. He also mentions that he has "tics," especially when he is nervous and describes them as "hard blinks" and "the occasional head pull." This leads the reader to believe that he has a form of Tourette's syndrome. Justin also gets to meet Via's parents.
• Darth Daisy "Daisy": Via and August's first dog, who goes by "Daisy." She was an old dog, and at the end of the book dies. August's family then gets a new dog named Bear.
• Miranda Navas: Via's friend. Via, Miranda, and Ella were friends. Miranda had recently cut her hair into a bob and dyed it pink, and dressed in a manner that she would have never dressed before. Via is shocked by Miranda's new look, and the two former friends slowly drift apart. Miranda took care of August and thought of him as her own "little brother;" when she went to summer camp immediately previous to the events in the book, Miranda lied and told everyone August was her brother. She was the one who gave him his astronaut helmet he would wear to conceal his face, and they would also sing Space Oddity by David Bowie together, and she would call him Major Tom after the astronaut in the song.
• Mr. Lawrence Tushman: The director of Beecher Prep. He is extremely welcoming and positive towards Auggie throughout the course of the school year. He tries his hardest to make him feel welcome at school. He delivers an important speech at graduation where he says "if every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world would be a better place."
• Charlotte Cody: She is a smart 5th grader and one of August's friends.
• Edward "Eddie" Johnson: He is a 7th grader who bullies August when he goes to a sleepaway camp.
• Mr. Tom Browne: Auggie's first teacher in 5th grade at Beecher Prep school. As he makes precepts for the class to ponder, Auggie is marvelled at these precepts. Mr. Browne wants to give Auggie a good year at Beecher.
• Bear: August and Via's second dog that they got after the camping trip that Auggie went on, as a replacement for Daisy.

Reception

Critical reception

The book received positive reviews from critics.

The parent resource Common Sense Media gave Wonder four out of five stars, calling it a "Moving, uplifting tale about a disfigured boy with inner beauty".

Entertainment Weekly said: “In a wonder of a debut, Palacio has written a crackling page-turner filled with characters you can’t help but root for." New York Times called it, “Rich and memorable…It’s Auggie and the rest of the children who are the real heart of ‘Wonder,’ and Palacio captures the voices of girls and boys, fifth graders, and teenagers, with equal skill.”.

Awards

"Wonder" was on The New York Times Best Seller list and was also on the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list. The book was the winner of the 2014 Maine Student Book Award, Vermont's Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award, the 2015 Mark Twain Award and Hawaii's 2015 Nene Award. In Illinois, it won both the Bluestem and Caudill Awards in 2014.

Film adaptation

Main article: Wonder (film)

A film adaptation directed by Stephen Chbosky and written by Steve Conrad starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson as Isabel and Nate Pullman respectively, and Jacob Tremblay as August Pullman was released on November 17, 2017 by Lionsgate.

Related books

Auggie and Me

Auggie and Me is not a sequel but a companion book to Wonder. It contains three stories, each telling the events of Wonder from different perspectives. The first story—called Julian's Chapter—is from the point of view of school bully Julian. The second—called Pluto—focuses on August Pullman's life before Beecher Prep and is set in the point of view of Christopher, Auggie's oldest friend. The third is called Shingaling and is from the point of view of Auggie's classmate, Charlotte, and focuses on things that were going on between some of the girls in Auggie's year like Ximena Chin, Summer Dawson, and Maya Markwet.

365 Days of Wonder

In Wonder, Mr. Browne made a precept for every month. 365 Days of Wonder states 365 different precepts collected by Mr. Browne.

External links

• RJ Palacio's website
• Review in The Guardian