WONDER By R.J. PALACIO | Book Review

PUBLICATION YEAR: 2012 GENRE: Children’s Literature PAGE COUNT: 313 FORMAT: Paperback AVAILABLE  ONLINE  : amazon

 The bright yellow cover is what attracted me to this book while I was wandering around a bookstore .Yes that’s right...!  I roam around bookstores as I find it extremely therapeutic  ( WEIRD FUN FACT ABOUT ME 😛 ) The synopsis  did not give away much so  I went through the first couple of pages and it instantly grabbed my attention  . I bought the book and finished it in no time.

Wonder is a middle grade novel about a boy named August who was born with a rare facial deformity. The story covers his school years especially the fifth grade.  At first, I thought the entire book was told by August’s perspective but I was surprised when I found a change in perspective. Subsequently we saw perspectives of his sister Via and all his school friends. I loved this aspect of storytelling as we get to know everyone’s point of view.

August as a character was truly lovely. One can’t help but empathise this little guy who had to go through such unfortunate situation. I was thinking that it is going to be a sob fest because a protagonist suffering from something as major as facial deformity implies lots of bullying scenes, lots of crying, sadness and an emotional roller coaster. However I was surprised to find him hilarious.
For instance – When his mother was teasing him for being friends with a pretty girl named Summer. He said, “We’re kind of like Beauty and the Beast”. This was both heartbreaking and funny at the same time. 😑

Basically he used sarcasm as a defence mechanism to deal with all the harsh realities of his life. But he also had his moments of totally losing it and giving up. I couldn’t stop crying when after the first day of the school where he felt left out and ignored by practically everyone , he says to his mom, “ Why do I have to be so ugly, Mommy?” 😢

With a protective caring mother and a fun dad, his family life seemed to be going well.  There was a smile in my face every time his dad was in a scene and   his interactions with both the kids were the most fun to read. I wish we got to see the point of views of the parents as well.

I absolutely loved Via’s perspective. Is it weird that I was constantly looking for her parts in the story more than August?  I don’t know, I could relate to her totally. It is not like I have anybody like August in my life. It’s just that she seemed very real .Her constant internal conflicts were extremely heart wrenching. On one hand as a teenage daughter, she desired to get attention of her parents , but at the same time she had to make herself strong enough when her parents ignored her as  they had to attend to August’s needs.  She felt guilty that she desired her parent’s attention despite knowing that her brother‘s issues were much more critical than her regular teenage issues. This constant internal struggle of seeking attention vs. being ignored was hard enough. This showed how the entire family is equally affected when one of its members is facing an unfortunate situation. Apart from this, she also had to go through the constant turmoil of teenage drama, broken friendship and the guilt of not wanting to be identified as “that girl with the strange looking brother” in her new school.

Summer was another character in the story whose perspective I too enjoyed. She seemed like a nice honest girl who doesn’t judge people based on their appearance. She was like a ray of sunshine. I especially liked the part when she admitted that at first she befriended August out of pity but she sustained this friendship because she genuinely found him a fun and cool person to hang out with.

Jack was another friend of August who in my opinion had the most character growth. At first he seemed like a jerk. But he redeemed himself when he took a stand for August .He also had the heart to apologise when he realised his mistake. He felt the most human with flaws and redeemable qualities.

There were a few other characters that were associated with August whose perspective I found more or less the same. At first, these guys were hesitant to be around August, but gradually became friends .It was heartening to see how everyone at the end just got around to help him.

One peculiar thing I noticed while reading the perspective of a character called Justin who was Via’s boyfriend.  His parts were written without uppercase letters and proper punctuation. So I went to the internet and found an interview of the author where she said – “the running monologue inside Justin’s head has no time for capital letters or punctuations, it is like his thoughts are streaming inside his mind. Also he is a musician; it just seemed natural to use lowercase letters to represent his thoughts in a very visual way. “

Best quote- “Everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their life because we all overcometh the world.”

After reading the book, I found out that there is also a movie starring Julia Roberts and I can’t wait to watch it, see if the film has done justice to the book. This is a must read for not only kids but also adults as it touches upon subjects of bullying and promoting acts of kindness. It is a WONDERful book and hence highly recommended.

RATING – 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 ( 4.5 / 5 )