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Wonder
2012
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New York Times Review
BORN with several genetic abnormalities, 10-year-old August Pullman, called Auggie, dreams of being "ordinary." Inside, he knows he's like every other kid, but even after 27 surgeries, the central character of "Wonder" bears facial disfigurations so pronounced that people who see him for the first time do "that look-away thing" - if they manage to hide their shock and horror. "Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse," he says of his face as the book begins. He's used to the stares and mean comments, but he's still terrified to learn that his parents have gotten him into middle school at Beecher Prep and want him to go there rather than be home-schooled. But they persuade him to give it a try -and by the time this rich and memorable first novel by R. J. Palacio is over, it's not just Auggie but everyone around him who has changed. Stories about unusual children who long to fit in can be particularly wrenching. At their core lurks a kind of loneliness that stirs primal fears of abandonment and isolation. But Palacio gives Auggie a counterweight to his problems: He has the kind of warm and loving family many "normal" children lack. Among their - and the book's - many strengths, the Pullmans share the, um, earthy sense of humor that all kids love. Over the years his parents, Nate and Isabel, have turned the disturbing story of Auggie's birth into high comedy involving a flatulent nurse who fainted at the sight of him, and they persuade him to go to Beecher by riffing hilariously on the name of the school's director, Mr. Tushman. It also helps that the Pullmans' world - they live in a town house in "the hippie-stroller capital of upper Upper Manhattan" - is the privileged, educated upper-middle class, that hotbed of parents who hover and micro-manage the lives of their perfectly fine children. It's somehow weirdly satisfying to see what happens when something actually alarming enters this zone of needless anxiety. Palacio carves a wise and refreshing path, suggesting that while even a kid like August has to be set free to experience the struggles of life, the right type of closeness between parents and children is a transformative force for good. But 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, switching narrators every few chapters to include Auggie's friends and his teenage sister, Via, who wrestles with her resentment, guilt and concern. "We circle around him like he's still the baby he used to be," she observes ruefully. And we see the vicious politics of fifth-grade popularity played out as the class bully targets Auggie and starts a campaign to shun him, culminating in an overnight school trip that turns scary and shuffles the social deck in ways no one could have imagined. While I sobbed several times during "Wonder," my 9-year-old daughter - who loved the book and has been pressing it on her friends - remained dry-eyed. She didn't understand why I thought Auggie's situation might upset her. "I like kids who are different," she said. I realized that what makes her cry are stories in which children suffer because they have missing or neglectful parents and no one to take care of them. Perhaps Palacio's most remarkable trick is leaving us with the impression that Auggie's problems are surmountable in all the ways that count - that he is, in fact, in an enviable position. Maria Russo is a frequent contributor to the Book Review.
Publishers Weekly Review
Auggie Pullman was born with severe facial deformities-no outer ears, eyes in the wrong place, his skin "melted"-and he's learned to steel himself against the horrified reactions he produces in strangers. Now, after years of homeschooling, his parents have enrolled him in fifth grade. In short chapters told from various first-person perspectives, debut author Palacio sketches his challenging but triumphant year. Though he has some expectedly horrible experiences at school, Auggie has lucked out with the adults in his life-his parents love him unconditionally, and his principal and teachers value kindness over all other qualities. While one bully manages, temporarily, to turn most of Auggie's classmates against him (Auggie likens this to becoming the human equivalent of "the Cheese Touch," a clever Diary of a Wimpy Kid reference), good wins out. Few first novels pack more of a punch: it's a rare story with the power to open eyes-and hearts-to what it's like to be singled out for a difference you can't control, when all you want is to be just another face in the crowd. Ages 8-12. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
School Library Journal Review
August, nicknamed Auggie, is a 10-year-old with a facial deformity that causes others to avoid and even shun him. When he enters a mainstream school, Auggie must learn to cope with difficult new situations and new people. The narrative is told from the perspectives of Auggie, his new friends, his sister, and her boyfriend. Steele's Auggie is raspy, quick, and delivered in a conversational tone, while Rudd and Podehl give a full range of vocal performances that bring the remaining characters to full light. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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