Book of the Week

Wonder by R J Palacio
Recommended by Xavier Chaudhary

'My name is August. I won't describe what I look like.  Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.'  Wonder charts the emotional and social turmoils of ten year old August 'Auggie' Pullman, a boy born with a rare facial deformity, who, despite having gone through twenty-seven corrective surgical procedures, and behaving a feeling like a 'normal' child, will never look even close to normal.

In a frankly brutal world, where appearances really do count, August finds himself being stared at in horror and avoided by others, and with even August's father likening August's situation to a 'lamb to the slaughter', we learn how August overcomes his middle school struggles. 
Throughout the book, clues are slowly dropped about the extent of his facial abnormality - he is described with eyes coming down too far, cheeks 'that look punched in', ears 'like tiny, closed fists', and he eats like a tortoise, due to surgery to repair a cleft palate that left a hole in the roof of his mouth.

Purely because of his appearance, August finds himself subject to targeting and bullying by children and parents alike - with one classmate's revolting, shallow parents (who are brilliantly dissected by Palacio) photo-shopping August out of the school photograph, and trying to get him sent to a special school - despite him being perfectly ordinary in terms of intelligence.  Whilst the book's focus is on August, Palacio includes well-crafted accounts from his fellow classmates, and his protective sister Via, whose social struggles in her new school we also learn about.

Inspired by an incident involving her three year old son and a young girl with facial defects, the international best-seller Wonder by Raquel Jaramillo (better known by her pen-name R J Palacio) is a powerful and emotive novel.  Wonder is bold, funny and engaging, written with charm and heart throughout.  Any reader will be inspired and uplifted as goodness and love eventually prevail, and finally one cannot help but feel delighted for the protagonist.  The book gives a realistic look at topic usually hushed in society, due to its rarity and sadness.  Yet August is a boy who can't be hushed into silence or invisibility in his world, simply because of the way he looks.