Wonder-Book Review

Wonder is an epic book written by Raquel Jaramillo, under the pen name of R.J. Palacio. It was published on 14th February 2012. R.J. Palacio wrote Wonder after an incident where her son noticed a girl with a severe facial deformity and started to cry. Fearing he would react badly, Palacio attempted to remove her son from the situation so as to not upset the girl and her family but ended up worsening the situation. As the Guardian rightly said, “It is a heartwarming book and has the power to change minds and move hearts.”This book focuses on a very significant matter that still prevails:- bullying. This book is from the perspective of all the characters of the story:- the bully, the victim, the victims sister, and their friends. This story revolves around a homeschooled fifth-grader, August Pullman who had a facial deformity. He lived in North River Heights, Upper Manhattan. He has a medical condition often equated with Treacher Collins Syndrome which scarred his face. Auggie was homeschooled by his mother, however she wanted him to face the world waiting for him outside and thus his parents enrolled him to Beecher Middle School for the start of fifth-grade. Auggie had an older sister named Olivia often called Via. She was going to High School when Auggie went to fifth-grade. Before school started, Mr. Tushman {the headmaster of Beecher Prep} thought that it would be wise if Auggie got a school tour so that he would know his way around. He thus invited three students who were said to be well behaved and disciplined to show Auggie around the school. The three children:- Julian, Jack Will and Charlotte seemed pretty decent. They showed Auggie his way around the school. However, Julian { who turns out to be the bully } touches the topic of Auggies face. While the other two are too startled to say anything, Julian asks Auggie if he was in a car accident or in a fire? Auggie pretended to ignore him, however he felt shattered inside.On the first day of school, Auggie tries not to draw attention towards himself but his efforts are in vain. By the end of the day, he is nicknamed ‘zombie kid’. People refused to sit on benches next to Auggies and Julian immediately bullies Auggie for his apperance. August’s hopes for the school year are later raised slightly when he forms friendships with classmates Jack and Summer, both of whom defend him from Julian’s taunts. However on Halloween, August who is disguised in a costume overhears Jack joining in with the bullying. August is heartbroken. This makes the reader sentimental and emotional. As August isolates himself from his classmates and family, his sister Olivia’s frustration grows, fueled by years of feeling ignored by her family.Returning to school, August ignores Jack but admits to Summer that he had overheard the incident. Jack feels ashamed for his actions, and punches Julian in the mouth and he gets suspended from school. Over the winter break, Jack reconciles with August.As the year progresses, the bullying worsens and extends to Jack as well. Julian manipulates several friends into turning against August and Jack, and he starts leaving pathetic notes in their locker. In addition, Julian’s mother voices her concerns over August’s attending the school, citing that his appearance may be too much of a burden for the other students to handle. Meanwhile, Olivia confides in her mother that she does not want August to attend her school play, as she had found comfort in the fact that nobody at her new school knew about her brother’s condition. August overhears this and storms out of the room.When the main actress, Miranda, Via’s (Olivia’s) best friend, decides that Via should take the leading role of the school play, she told the director that she couldn’t be in the school play, Olivia takes on the role. Her family celebrates by taking her and Miranda out for dinner. At the end of the school year, the students are invited on a three-day school trip to a nature reserve. At the start, August is worried about going. However, hearing that Julian will not be comming {as he was suspended for his behavior}, August decides to have an awesome time and joins his friends. He has fun until the last night, when he and Jack go to the woods and are attacked by seventh graders who start to beat them, only to be saved by Julian’s friends. August lost his hearing aids and started hearing ocean sounds. One of the boys said “your hearing aids fell off.” He got concerned because he could barely hear much anymore because the ocean sounds were taking over his ability to hear. The next day onwards, things started to change. People had started being nice to Auggie and Jack, and always included them in their group. Moreover, Julian had started being ignored by everybody. No one was his friend any longer. On the day before graduation, Mr. Tushman calls August to his office and informs him that Julian will not be returning to Breecher Prep the following year. He also tells Auggie that he was proud of how Auggie faced this year.Meanwhile, the Pullman family get a new dog called ‘Bear’On graduation, Auggie is awarded the ‘Henry Ward Beecher Medal’ for being ‘notable or exemplary in certain areas throughout the school year’. Incredibly proud of her son, August’s mother comments that he is a ‘wonder’. This book totally changes the way a person thinks about such situations. Its a hillarious, dramatic and uplifting book of a disfigured boy with inner beauty.Its an excellent book to start of with for reluctant readers.