Wonder
He walks into school knowing how people will react to his face. Palacio wrote a novel about kindness that asks what courage actually looks like.
August Pullman
R.J. Palacio's 2012 novel follows August Pullman, a ten-year-old boy with Treacher Collins syndrome, a facial difference that has meant a lifetime of home-schooling. When his parents decide he should attend Beecher Prep for the fifth grade, August must navigate the full force of other people's reactions for the first time. The novel is told from multiple perspectives including his sister Via, his classmates Jack and Summer, and others, building a complete picture of how one person's presence can change a community. The novel has sold over 15 million copies and was adapted into a film starring Jacob Tremblay and Julia Roberts in 2017.
Reading Wonder
Perspective
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Part
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
"R.J. Palacio
Palacio was inspired to write the novel after an encounter in an ice cream shop where her young son was frightened by a child with a facial difference. She drove home ashamed of her own reaction and began writing the next morning.
The Choose Kind movement inspired by the novel has reached thousands of schools worldwide. Palacio wrote the book in four months and submitted it to publishers while working as a book cover designer under a different name.