Wonder

“Everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their life.”

In many ways, August Pullman is just an ordinary kid. He is obsessed with Star Wars and he loves video games. But except for the people closest to him people don’t get a chance to really know Auggie. He has severe facial deformities as the result of a genetic anomaly. Auggie has always been homeschooled because of the medical problems and 27 surgeries he has had in his life, but decides to try fifth grade at a real school.

Auggie’s story realistically tells the good and bad of his experience, but the book really becomes exceptional when it leaves Auggie’s first person account and tells the story from the perspective of other characters, some that at first seem minor. Suddenly, the entire world of the story truly comes alive. For other profoundly moving books about befriending someone “different” try Freak the Mighty by W. R. Philbrick or Alabama Moon by Watt Key.