Wonder

Synopsis
Auggie has a rare craniofacial abnormality. ("I won't describe what I look like," he writes. "Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.") He's attending public school for the first time in fifth grade and he seems to bring out the very best and the very worst in some of his classmates.

My thoughts
When I checked this book out from the library, one of my friends spotted it in my pile and told me she'd loved it. The librarian who checked me out told me that the library had eight copies of the book and they were all always checked out (I'd snagged the last one off the shelf). Apparently that's pretty remarkable for a YA novel that was published more than a year ago (and that isn't Harry Potter). And now having read it, I'd say Wonder lives up to the hype.

Auggie is a rare gem of a character with an indomitable spirit and a can-do attitude. He's been homeschooled because he's had so many medical issues, and he's initially reluctant to attend school. People have gaped at him his entire life, but that doesn't mean he's used to it or somehow immune to it. His classmates react much as he expects them to—kids say insensitive things (whether they mean to or not) and some of them won't sit by him. But Auggie does manage to make a few friends who overlook his unconventional looks and genuinely like him for his sense of humor and intelligence.

R.J. Palacio does a good job writing from the tween state of mind. It's a really ugly stew of exerting and succumbing to peer pressure, attempting to forge your own identity, and learning to figure out right from wrong when there's not a clear choice. In their own ways, Auggie's friends Summer and Jack go out of their way to befriend Auggie when the prevailing attitude is to shun him, which takes an uncommon mixture of strength and self-confidence. There's a herd mentality in middle school that makes it extremely difficult to be your own person, and it's no surprise that two out of the three kids who act as Auggie's welcoming committee at the beginning of the school year drop him as soon as they can.

One of them is Julian, the child villain of Wonder. Palacio shifts the blame to Julian's parents for raising him to be the inconsiderate little monster he is. He simply follows their example. The scary thing is that I know people who are an awful lot like them. Like Julian's parents, they're French and they named one of their kids Julian. But they're also selfish, self-absorbed people who feel that if a situation inconveniences them or makes them uncomfortable, then others must make everything "right" for them.

The only problem with the book is that everything gets tied up a little too neatly. As much as I reveled in Auggie's triumph over his bullies and his peers' whole-hearted acceptance of him at the end of the book, his story probably wouldn't have ended that happily or that decisively in real life. It was a little disappointing for a book that had had such an authentic voice from the beginning, but it's a YA novel—best to savor the warm, fuzzy feeling it leaves you with.

Bottom line
Wonder has a wonderful feel-good message and I can see why so many schools are making it required reading. I'll keep an eye out for Palacio's next book, too.

Fine print
Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
Genre: YA fiction
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from the library.