Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Title: Wonder

Author/Illustrator: R.J. Palacio
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age: 8 and UP
Awards: Major Awards: Texas Bluebonnet nominee, Texas Lone-star Reading list, New York Times best seller, Maine Student Book Award,Vermont's Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award, Mark Twain Award, Hawaii's 2015 Nene Award, Junior Young Readers Choice Award, and many more!!

The book wonder has so much insight to give. It is story of a 10 year old child that has a disorder called Mandibulofacial Dysostosis, which is also known as Treater Collins Syndrome. Mandibulofacial Dysostosis is a genetic disorder that the little boy, August Pullman was born with. The disorder caused his face to have a type of deformity that he did not like at all.

August, otherwise known as Auggie, was homeschooled all of his life because he hated going out in public, overtime he would go out in public he would wear a space helmet. The helmet was the only thing that made him feel comfortable in public, because yes people would be looking at him, but they would be looking at him because he had a "cool" space helmet on, not because people thought his face was weird. The helmet gave Auggie a type of confidence that he couldn't have with it off.

I could go on and on about the story, but I will try my best to stick to the main points (in my opinion).  When Auggie was 10, his mom decided to convince him to join a real school, instead of being homeschooled. She decided that it would be good for him to get out of the house and make friends with people, even though he was terrified of what people would think of him. Ague began school in as a fifth grader at Beecher Prep. However, right off of the bat pretty much he was able to have a few friends that didn't care that he was a little bit different. But later on in the story, Auggie caught his best friend that he had made, Jack, making fun of him behind his back. He was completely torn and did not want to go to school anymore and frankly it just made him angry at everyone. Auggie has an awesome personality, he made jokes, he played with his friends, he made good grades (better than most of the students grades), and he just couldn't understand why people had to be so cruel, especially someone he thought he could call his friend.

With many ups and downs, the book starts to climax when the class goes to camp. At camp Auggie still has not accepted Jack back as a friend just yet, until a group of older students start to pick on Auggie and jack steps in to take up for him. This was the first time someone besides Auggie's family had stood up for him like this. Jack gave a sensor apology once he realized what he had done wrong, and they were able to rekindle their friendship.

Auggie grew tremendously in his first year of school Beecher Prep. We can learn a lot about what Auggie went through in the book. We can also learn a ton from the side stories provided in the book, such as his sisters struggles through out the book. She felt left out a lot and did not feel like she was seen or important to her parents. We could say that communication is a big thing we can learn from this. For example, if Via (Auggie's sister) would have communicated her feelings with her parents sooner, they could have been giving her attention that they didn't know she needed at the time. Another huge take away from the book is to have confidence! It is okay to feel scared or insecure at times, but the important part is that you step out of that comfort zone and you make the choice to grow from your insecurities, especially the ones that you can't change.

Always stay confident, people love you and people have your back, even in the hardest times when you can't see it.