From Goodreads:
"August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?"
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I read Wonder a year ago, after my then-fourth grader raved about it. Miss Enthusiasm was just getting into reading books for fun and identifying what she liked versus what the crowd/her teacher likes. So when she said, "Mom, you *have* to read this book," I took her at her word.
She's got good taste.
Wonder is a spectacular novel, one that holds up to re-reading despite the heavy emotional issues that drive the plot. As other reviewers have pointed out, it's an "issue" story, but it isn't written in the heavy literary hand that many issue stories are as they try to beat the tears out of you. Instead, August's tone is filled with self-deprecating humor and a shrug of "what can you do?" that makes the experience palatable and August himself extremely likeable. In fact, Palacio does a masterful job of making everyone likeable, purely by writing from their perspective. It's a great lesson in "be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." I'm proud to have Wonder on my bookshelves and even happier to convince other people to read it and gain a little sympathy for the people in our lives who are having a hard time--obvious or not.
Gentle Reader Alert: I found nothing of concern.
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