DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
Wonder is a character-driven nove) about a ten-year-old August Pullman (Auggie to his friends) who just wants to be treated as an ordinary boy when he starts school after being home schooled. He was born with a facial deformity and his face had required many reconstructive surgeries that prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Now August's parents think it's time that he goes to school, beginning with fifth grade at Beecher Prep in the fall. The idea of this terrifies Auggie. He feels like an ordinary boy and has the interests of one, but he has a condition that makes him differenti his face scares kids and makes people stare. However, August is pretty gond natured about it ali: he knows how people react to seeing him. Anyway, Auggie is brave but at school many people laugh at him behind his back and make a game called the Plague going around where people "catch" a "disease" if they touch Auggie. One boy, Julian, leads the bullying attacks; hes the sort of kid whom adults find charming, but in reality, he is quite mean to anyone not in his group. Auggie makes two close friends: Summer, a girl who actually likes Auggie for who he is, and Jack. Jack started out as Auggie's "assigned" friend, and when Auggie finds this out, he and Jack have a falling out. However, they patch things up at Christmas, after Jack gets suspended for hitting Julian for badmouthing Auggie. This leads to a "war" among the boys: the popular boys against Auggie and Jack. In the spring there is a confrontation between a group of older boys from a different school and Auggie and Jack at a sleep-away camp. They are hopelessly outnumbered unti) a group of boys who ware formerly against Auggie and Jack help defend them from the bullies. In the and, Auggie has a successful year at school. He gets an award for courage at school, which is not something he understands: "If they want to give me a meda) for being me, l'il take it." He sees himself as ordinary, and in the face of everything else, he really is just that: an ordinary kid.
COMMENTS ON THIS PUBLICATION
The author brings up some important points about Identity and how people tend to judge people who are different in this engrossing story. Auggie is about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've aver been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that hes just like them, despite appearances? This is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. Very little happens in the course of the book and yet readers will find themselves affected by Auggie and his story. Wonder is a compelling book which invites the readers to engage with characters who are real and come alive off the page; it pulls the readers finto the story. Ws the straightforward manner in which Palacio approaches her topic that makes this book excellent.
