Wonder

Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  Wonder focuses on Augie Pullman, a ten-year-old boy with a severe facial deformity.  Although he has a loving family and a few supportive friends, he is now facing a huge new challenge: attending a “regular” school for the first time.  Throughout the novel, readers share Augie’s experiences, which include daily humiliations but also surprising connections and gradually developing friendships.  And Augie’s realistic, often humorous voice tells only part of the story.  Chapter by chapter, the narration shifts between Augie, his sister Via (who both adores and resents her brother), as well as several of Augie’s new classmates (most of whom eventually show that visible disabilities are only one kind of difference.)  By the end, the novel paints a broader picture of a school and a community changing in reaction to inclusion -- surprising itself with its own capacity for both casual cruelty and deep kindness.