Wonder is a children's novel by Raquel Jaramillo, under the pen name of R. J. Palacio, published on 14 February 2012. R. J. Palacio wrote Wonder after an incident where her son noticed a girl with a severe facial difference and started to cry. Fearing he would react badly, Palacio attempted to remove her son from the situation so as not to upset the girl and her family but ended up worsening the situation. Natalie Merchant's song "Wonder" made her realize that the incident could illustrate a valuable lesson. Palacio was inspired by Merchant's lyrics and she began writing. She named the book directly after the song, and used the song's chorus as the prologue of the first chapter. Several spin-offs, including the calendar book 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts and Auggie and Me have been published. A film adaptation was released in 2017.
Plot
The book begins with the words: "You could say I'm just like any normal kid. I have a family, I have a computer, I have an Xbox". August "Auggie" Pullman then talks about his family, and then it skips to: "My name is August. I can't tell you what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse". Auggie Pullman is a home-schooled fifth-grader living in North River Heights in Upper Manhattan with his parents. He has a medical condition, often equated with Treacher Collins syndrome, which has left his face disfigured. Due to his condition, August has been home-schooled by his mother; however, wanting him to experience a larger world, his parents enroll him into Beecher Prep, a private school, for the start of fifth grade. Auggie has a sister, Olivia "Via" Pullman, who is older than he is and often puts her brother's needs before her own. Before his first day of school, Auggie's mother takes Auggie to the school to meet the principal, Mr. Tushman, who also invited Jack Will, Charlotte and Julian, three students who all go to Beecher Prep to take him around, and start getting the feeling of how it's like to be with other people. Auggie is immediately bullied by Julian, who acts "like an angel" in from of teachers, but is really just a big bully. Jack and Charlotte instantly start defending him, but Auggie still doesn't feel comfortable around Julian. On his first day of school, Auggie tries not to draw attention to himself. His efforts are in vain, and Julian, immediately starts bullying him with his buddies for his appearance. 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. The situation comes to a head on Halloween when Auggie, disguised as Ghostface when he had told Jack he would be Boba Fett, overhears Jack joining in with the bullying. 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, Auggie ignores Jack but admits to Summer that he had overheard the incident. Jack feels ashamed for his actions, and punches Julian in the mouth, causing him to get suspended from school. Over the winter break, Jack reconciles with Auggie, telling him the truth of how he didn't mean any of the words he had said. As the school year progresses, the bullying Auggie faces become more serious and extends to Jack as well. Julian manipulates several friends into turning against August and Jack. In addition, Julian's mother voices her concerns over Auggie attending the school, citing that his appearance may be too much of a burden for the other students to handle. Via confides in her mother that she does not want Auggie 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 and storms out of the room angrily, upset that his sister too is ashamed to let her new friends see him. Meanwhile, Via's best friend Miranda has started avoiding her, for reasons unknown to Via. Both Miranda and Via audition for the lead in their school play and Miranda gets the part. However, on opening night, Miranda sees Via's family in the audience and feigns illness so Via, her understudy, can play the lead. It is revealed that Miranda felt isolated at summer camp and pretended Auggie was her brother, gaining sympathy and friendship from other campers. Miranda's guilt over this deception had led her to avoid Via, but allowing Via to take the lead role provided a way for the two friends to reconcile. Via's family celebrates by taking both girls out for dinner. At the end of Auggie's school year, the students are invited on a three-day trip to a nature reserve. Auggie is initially concerned about going. However, upon hearing that Julian will not be attending, August decides to join his friends on the trip. He has fun until the last night, when he and Jack go exploring in the woods. They are attacked by seventh graders who mock Auggie and start to beat him and Jack, but Julian's friends find them and fight off the bullies. Auggie starts to feel closer to the other students after this ordeal. With summer vacation approaching, Auggie is relieved to hear that Julian will not be returning to Beecher Prep. At graduation, August is awarded the 'Henry Ward Beecher Medal' for being 'notable or exemplary in certain areas throughout the school year'. Extremely proud of her son, August's mother comments that he is a 'wonder'.
Reception
Critical reception
The book received positive reviews from critics. The parent resource Common Sense Media gave Wonder four out of five stars, calling it a "Moving, uplifting tale about a disfigured boy with inner beauty". Entertainment Weekly said: "In a wonder of a debut, Palacio has written a crackling page-turner filled with characters you can't help but root for". The New York Times called it, "Rich and memorable 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".
The novel, written in English, has been translated into 29 other languages for worldwide sales: Spanish, Catalan, Japanese, German, French, Portuguese, Danish, Czech, Serbian, Arabic, Hebrew, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish, Faroese, Turkish, Dutch, Persian, Italian, Finnish, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Ukrainian, Polish, Croatian, Greek, Romanian, Vietnamese and Slovenian. First published in 2012 by Alfred A. Knopf, the novel was still a top seller for the firm in 2017, when it sold 5 million copies in combined book and e-book units in the United States alone.
Auggie and Me is a companion book to Wonder that contains "The Julian Chapter," which serves as a sequel to Wonder. It contains three stories, each telling the events of Wonder from different perspectives. The first story, called "The Julian Chapter", is told from the point of view of school bully Julian where he explains why he mistreats Auggie and if he will change. The second, called "Pluto", focuses on August Pullman's life before Beecher Prep and is told from the point of view of Christopher, Auggie's oldest friend. The third is called "Shingaling" and is told from the point of view of Auggie's classmate Charlotte, who, in Wonder, is the first person that is nice to him at Beecher Prep; it focuses on things that were going on between some of the girls in Auggie's year, such as Ximena Chin, Summer Dawson, and Maya Markowitz. Auggie finally adapted to his school with the help of his new friends.
''365 Days of Wonder''
In Wonder, Mr. Browne made a precept for every month. 365 Days of Wonder states 365 different precepts collected by Mr. Browne. It also has thoughts and opinions by Mr. Browne after every month in the book.
''We're All Wonders''
In this short picture book, Auggie talks about his life before the book Wonder. Auggie focuses on this story on how we are all wonders. Auggie has his astronaut helmet on most of the time.
