R. J. Palacio lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, two sons and two dogs (Bear and Beau). Her debut novel, Wonder, has been on the New York Times bestseller list since March, 2012, and has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The book’s message of kindness has inspired the Choose Kind movement, and has been embraced by readers, young and old, around the world.
https://wonderthebook.com/about
With a face that through some of his younger years he keeps hidden from others with a helmet, August is home schooled, partly because the countless operations on his facial deformities necessitating weeks away for school, but also because of the need for the family to protect him from prying eyes and cruel comments. His face is lop sided, his ears jut out badly, he has some difficulty eating and his eyes are a little odd. In a society obsessed with appearance, his looks draw comments, and sometimes shock and derision.
But when he approaches middle school, the family decides that he needs to go to school, and so he is set along a path that forces him to deal with bullying and cruel laughter, but also companionship and friendship, support and encouragement.
His first year at middle school is beset with problems. The staff, in an attempt to ease this clever boy into their school, ask some to befriend him, causing problems later on. Some obviously avoid him, and when an incident occurs which causes some to take sides, the nastier group within the school set out to alienate him even further. But several kids shine through in their friendship with Auggie and it is them who help the lad cope with the bullying that he receives.
At a school camp, a group from another school take exception to this oddly faced boy and in setting him apart for some more violent treatment, incur the wrath of many of the others at Auggie's school, suddenly protective of him.
With chapters given from Auggie's point of view, alongside chapters giving his sister's perspective, his friend, Jack, his sister's friend, Miranda and several others of his group, the story builds to a climax, with each set of chapters filling in the background to one boy's life.
This is a warm, sensitive and engrossing read. We are astounded at Auggie's matter of fact way in dealing with the others in the school, disheartened when some bully him, alarmed when his friend, Jack reveals why he is friendly and cheered by the support shown by the others in his year at the school camp. It is an enlightening, warm hearted story of one boy coping in his first year at school, carrying a disability many would find alarming.
For readers this will prove a story to make them think about our society's stress on how we look, and of how they react to someone's disability, and above all of acceptance and friendship and courage.
ReadPlus
Auggie Pullman wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old, but he is far from ordinary. Born with a terrible facial deformity, this shy, bright ten-year-old has been home-schooled by his parents for his whole life, in an attempt to protect him from the stares and cruelty of the outside world. Now, for the first time, Auggie is being sent to a real school - and he's dreading it. Auggie sees himself as just an ordinary kid and all he wants is to be accepted. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?
WorldCat
Auggie & me : three Wonder stories by
Auggie & Me is a new side to the Wonder story: three new chapters from three different characters - bully Julian, oldest friend Christopher and classmate Charlotte - giving an insight into how Auggie has touched their own lives.
Ugly by
Robert Hoge was born with a tumour in the middle of his face, and legs that weren't much use. There wasn't another baby like him in the whole of Australia, let alone Brisbane. But the rest of his life wasn't so unusual: he had a mum and a dad, brothers and sisters, friends at school and in his street. He had childhood scrapes and days at the beach; fights with his family and trouble with his teachers. He had doctors, too: lots of doctors who, when he was still very young, removed that tumour from his face and operated on his legs, then stitched him back together. He still looked different, though. He still looked ugly. It is also the true story of how an extraordinary boy grew up to have an ordinary life, and how that became his greatest achievement of all.