Wonder

The first day at a new school is always daunting, particularly when one is at that  unenviable pre-teen age when so much seems to revolve around who is sitting with whom at lunchtime.

For ten-year-old August ('Auggie'), the level of the challenge is acutely more profound.  For one thing, he has only ever been home-educated, so must acclimatise to the whole concept of going to school.  For another, Auggie has a facial disfiguration, and of the most severe kind.   It invokes widespread reactions of shock, suspicion and fear, and those around him behave in ways that are sometimes thoughtless and sometimes intentionally hurtful and even downright cruel.  In other people, it brings out the urge to protect - but in some cases perhaps overly so.

So Auggie must find his way, whilst also negotiating the tricky path away from cuddly toys and Star Wars posters and towards independence and teenagerdom.  We all know that 'tween' friendships can be fickle at the best of times, and in Auggie's case, the process of trying to gain acceptance and procure real friendship is at times almost unbearably painful to witness. 

That said, this is a book which is also upbeat enough to appeal to a wide readership. Auggie is exceptionally likeable, without being too good to be true.  He's thoroughly three-dimensional, as are the other key characters around him - his parents, sister and best friends are all surprisingly fully-rounded, each with their own share of strengths, challenges and moral dilemmas.  The book offers a fascinating added layer of insight into their minds - allowing several of them the chance to narrate a few chapters during the middle of the book.  Quite how this works so well and so seamlessly without irritating or distracting is something of a mystery, and a huge credit to Palacio.  

This is a book with a heavily undisguised message about the importance of the way we treat others. Highly engaging and readable, Wonder could also encourage a few young readers to consider that maybe - just maybe - the way someone is on the inside could be as important as the way they look.