Wonder
By: R.J. Palacio
Bluebonnet Novel

This novel is about the life of August Pullman, a brave child who was born with many birth defects. Many of these defects changed his face into what many people found repulsive, scary, and odd. This book is all about Auggie’s hardship in fifth grade, because before fifth grade his mother had homeschooled August. When he began school, he finds himself having a hard time fitting in with everyone at school. August is different; people mock him, act like they may get the plague if they touch him, and say terrible things behind his back. One of the main reasons August has such a tough time is because of one student, named Julian.
Luckily, August found two people who became his rock when he found himself in a tough place. Jack and Summer were true friends of August Pullman, they saw past his deformities. Jack struggles with trying to stay cool with the popular children in school, so he sometimes has a hard time staying a good friend to August all the time. August once finds Jack talking rudely to Julian about his face when he didn’t notice. This crushed Auggie, but luckily August has a lovely sister, Olivia. Olivia is a gentle, protective and amazing sister to August. When August is having a tough time, she is always there to pull him out of the dumps.
Eventually, the children at August’s school realize that there is a lot more to August than his deformed face. After a crazy event happened at camp, when the students went out of there way to protect August, tides turned in August’s favor. All of the students at school heard the rumor of how August was so brave, and how cool the other children were to stand up like that! The children started to recognize how silly they had been. They began to accept August for what he truly is. He wasn’t an alien, he was a regular fifth grader just like everyone else in the school.


I would absolutely love to use this book inside my classroom one day. It not only strengthens there reading skills, but also teaches them a wonderful lesson. You can’t judge a book by its cover. This is a saying that I’m sure everyone has heard, but this book brings the realness of that saying to light! I think this book would be good for children in 4th-8th grade. There could be tons of activities to go along with this book too, such as having students come up with their own precepts, or to have students do a project on describing characteristics of certain characters.

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