Letter Essay #5: Wonder

For the past couple of week I have been reading the novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio. This book is 315 pages and is a fiction novel. This book was given 4 and a half stars out of 5. In addition, this novel was Published January 3rd 2013. Following off of that this novel has won many awards, including Josette Frank Award (2013), West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award (WAYRBA) for Younger Readers (2013), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award (2014) and many more. I definitely recommend reading this novel because it is inspiring and different. The reason I read this book was because many people have read it before and have recommended the book to me. They said that it was a very good novel to read and was very interesting.

 

In this novel, Wonder there is a ten year old boy named August Pullman but everyone calls him Auggie. The only thing that Auggie wants it to be a normal kid, he wants people to not take one look at him and start judging. I mean he does ordinary things, like eats, plays video games, and other things that someone his age would do. He feels normal to himself in the inside, but not the outside. Unfortunately, Auggie was born with face abnormalities and that is why Auggie has been homeschooled his whole life. But now Auggie is going to real school. How will this end? Will the other classmates accept him? All of these questions come from the book and the description helps me answer my questions. When Auggie gets to the school he doesn’t get the reaction he was hoping for. Staring, whispering, and leaving Auggie out makes him think, will they ever think of Auggie as normal? This book is about Auggie’s adventure in the school that he is dreading and is also about how people judge people before they even get to know the person. This is like looking at a book cover and just saying you don’t like it before you even get to know what it is about. Will Auggie survive his first year in public school? Will he make friends? I would definitely read this novel to find out what challenges and what accomplishments Auggie has during the year.

 

I believe that the main character of this novel is very confident and inspiring. Auggie had dealt with his condition for a very long time. The staring that people gave him because he was different. I also believe that when he made a friend in the novel it was very inspiring. I think this because it means that you can accomplish whatever you put your mind too. “Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.” This quote by R.J. Palacio is basically telling us that what you see on the outside isn’t even half as important than what is on the inside like a person’s personality. Auggie was my favorite character in this novel because of those reasons.

 

I liked the way the author wrote the novel in Auggie’s prospective. I like this because it allows me to know what he is feeling and allows me to connect with the character better. If this novel wasn’t written in the perspective of Auggie then I wouldn’t know how he was feeling and what he was thinking. These thoughts from Auggie helped me make up questions about the story that would soon be answered in the future of the book. I am very glad that the author wrote the novel Wonder like this.

 

This novel reminds me of The Fault in Our Stars. It reminds me of this book because Hazel has to carry around an oxygen tank and people stare at her just like how they stare at August. It is also similar because they were both homeschooled and both met new friends.

 

Finally, the passage from this novel that I enjoyed the most was the part when Charlotte and Julian are giving Auggie a tour of his new school and talking to him about classes.

 

“We put on a play every year,” said Charlotte.

“I don’t think he’s going to want to be in the school play, Charlotte,” said Julian sarcastically.

“You can be in the play without actually being ‘in’ the play,” Charlotte answered, looking at me. “You can do the lighting. You can paint the backdrops.”

“Oh yeah, whoopee,” said Julian, twirling his finger in the air.

“But you don’t have to take the theater-arts elective if you don’t want to,” Charlotte said, shrugging. “There’s dance or chorus or band. There’s leadership.”

“Only dorks take leadership,” Julian interrupted.

“Julian, you’re being so obnoxious!” said Charlotte, which made Julian laugh. “I’m taking the science elective,” I said.

 

“Cool!” said Charlotte.

Julian looked directly at me. “The science elective is supposedly the hardest elective of all,” he said. “No offense, but if you’ve never, ever been in a school before, why do you think you’re suddenly going to be smart enough to take the science elective? I mean, have you ever even studied science before? Like real science, not like the kind you do in kits?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

(pg.27-30)

 

The thing that I liked about this passage was how when Julian was being mean and rude to Auggie about how he wouldn’t want to be in the play, how the science elective is the hardest, and how leadership is for dorks, but then Charlotte sticks up for Auggie. I like this because Charlotte doesn’t care what Julian thinks about her so she helps Auggie out and supports his thoughts. If I were to rate this book out of 10 I would rate it a 9 out of 10.

 

 

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3 thoughts on “Letter Essay #5: Wonder

  1. Julia,
    I read “Wonder” last year (after Tim Green told everyone that they should) and I really liked it. It’s obviously uplifting and encouraging, and it is one of those books that people should read to help us become better people. If we don’t read books like this, we become like Julian, in that scene.
    As usual, you did a nice job on this letter-essay, incorporating all the necessary parts, elaborating and neatly inserting a quoted passage. I’m glad you liked the book. Thanks for posting.
    Mr. Jockers

  2. Dear Julia,

    I really enjoyed reading your letter essay. It was very nicely written and I agree with a lot of what you said. I definitely agree with your rating and feel this book was one of my favorites. It is still one of my favorite books even though I read it a while ago.

    Good Job!!
    Hannah Wergeles

  3. I love this novel. It is inspiring and uplifting in a way that teaches me a lot about life. Well done on this essay, I agree with you in almost everything you’ve said. Not to mention the fact that this is still one of the best story ever marked in history.

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