a WONDERful book

I love recommendations from fellow librarians.  As people who spend our entire lives surrounded by books, it is sometimes hard to tell the good from the bad and the good from the great.  Every one has a different taste in books, but for the most part, a great book is a great book to everyone.

Enter, Wonder, the first novel by JR Palacio.

Filled with references to other wonderful contemporary novels, kindness, and triumph over bullying, this novel is quite the 'great book'.  Auggie (August) Pullman is the recipient of a combination of genetic mutations and disorders that leave his face 'deformed'.  He has lived with it all his life and lived with the stares and shocked faces that greet him everywhere he goes.  After being homeschooled most of his life, Auggie's parents decide that he should start the 5th grade in a real school. 

Much like the book Schooled by Gordon Korman, another of my very favorite books, I found myself appalled at the treatment of Auggie when he gets to school.  Perhaps I just have blocked most of my middle school experience from my memory bank, or perhaps I simply still suffer from only seeing what I want to see, but  I just don't remember my experience that way.

Don't get me wrong - I totally remember high school like that.  I just don't remember middle school kids being that mean (especially in fifth grade).  Either way, both books help us understand that although some kids grow up differently than we do or look/act different, they are still kids, they still have feelings, and they still just want to find their place in the world.

Sometimes the narrator of an audiobook can make or break the way we feel about a novel.  It was definitely the narrator of Shakespeare's Secret who facilitated my love of that book.  In the exact opposite way, I actually had to turn off the audiobook of Wonder after only ten minutes; knowing that if I left it on, I would end up hating the book.  I ended up reading the book and loving it.  It didn't take long, as it is a fast read, and I found myself wanting to know what would happen to Auggie and his friends.

I would recommend this book to all children entering middle school as a way to teach compassion and understanding of those different than we are.  In an environment where everyone is trying to find their place, it might go a long way to understand that everyone is trying to do the same thing.