Posted by If you’re looking for a good holiday gift, I recommend this book called Wonder by R. J. Palacio. I love this book so much that I read it twice in fourth grade and once this year, plus our teacher read it to the class.
Wonder has been out for a long time, but since there’s been a movie made about it, the new version includes exclusive bonus content about the making of the movie. (I have seen the movie twice, but like the book better.)
It is about a boy named August who is born with a craniofacial abnormality. This means being rushed out of the hospital bed before you can lay eyes on your mom and having multiple surgeries to try to make you look “normal.” Having this deformity also means being stared at on the playground and being whispered about when people think you can’t hear them.
Like me, August is in fifth grade. Maybe that’s why this is the book my teacher read to us this semester. He probably thought we could relate to the characters. This book shows the challenges you go through when you’re different, especially how hard it is to make friends. The book also helps students understand why it is important to CHOOSE KIND all the time.
I loved that this book was all about kindness and empathy. Kids like August’s friend Summer knew how hard it was for him to go through all those surgeries, and everyone looking at his face, so she became friends with him. I also really liked this book because it was on a topic that I haven’t broadly approached: deformity. I think one of the reason Wonder is such a popular book is because it’s about something not many people know about.
This is a tough read for younger kids, so readers ages 10 and older would enjoy this book.
I give this book 4 out of 4 roses!
Elena Reads and Reviews 
I also have read this book and really enjoyed it. Although the book is primarily about August, I thought the subplots of the other characters were very compelling. Which character was your favorite after August?
Do you think this book accurately depicted 5th graders?
Why do you prefer the book to the movie?
Aisha
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Summer is my favorite character because she is really nice and smart and she is biracial, like me. Also, I like that she’s the most empathetic character. Some parts accurately depicted 5th graders, but not the parts where some of them had boyfriends and girlfriends.
I like the book better than the movie because the book really showed how kind Summer was to him. In the movie, they only had a few days together. Also, the movie skipped over a lot of parts, including when Auggie got hearing aids stolen. I think that was important in the book because it showed the cruelty of bullying. The movie had some bullying, but not a lot.
But what I did like about the movie is that it showed who turned in the mean notes to prove the bullying.
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