Wonder, by Raquel J. Palacio, is a tale of how differences can be overcome if you simply look past them. A boy named Auggie has a severe facial disfigurement, which causes him to have an “unsettling” appearance that others are scared of interacting with. He was not enrolled in a public school because he was always in the hospital receiving surgeries. During this time, his older sister Via was his best and only friend. For his fifth grade year, Auggie is enrolled in a private school and makes new friends, while also having to deal with students in his grade who constantly bully him.
Wonder is broken up into parts, which are each told from a different character’s point of view. This setup is able to show many sides of the story, and how each character feels throughout the book. These parts progress in time, so the character telling the story will not retell the last event, but rather tell life how they are seeing it in real time. This immerses the reader into their world and continuously changes their perspective on the story, which makes it a more interesting novel.
The BACC Rag 