Wonder

Ok, I kinda cheated a little.

So here's a bit of backstory to this post and this book (and these novellas).

My best buddy, Erin, had recommend Wonder to me the last time we FaceTimed. She had told me she was glad that I started my reading challenge again with a reasonable amount of books and suggested a book she had just read and thought I would like. It seemed perfect for getting back into reading. It was relatively short, a Young Adult novel, and it was about a boy with a Craniofacial abnormality (and a bunch of other issues that are never named). Clearly the topic was right up my alley for the obvious reason that a cleft lip and palate is also considered a Craniofacial abnormality. ;)

As I always do, I flip to the last page in the story to see how many pages are in the book so I can note when I hit milestones (generally 10%, 20%, 25%, 50%, and 75% and then completed, it's a bit OCD, I know, but I like knowing). So it was somewhat jarring when the book abruptly ended about 100 pages sooner than I expected... because there was an additional novella after the book! I found this exciting. I enjoy little bonuses like that. In my search (prior to reading it) of finding out if it was an extra chapter, novella, or preview for another entire novel, I found that it was a novella, AND there was even another one that has only been released as an ebook and audiobook. So I had to go read that one too.

Because they are short, and because they are separate novellas, I get credit for each of them as an individual book on GoodReads, thus inflating my book count, for short little stories. So that's why this is kinda a cheat. And because I read them all in quick succession (I seriously could not get enough of this series), I am doing one blog post for all of them. This is another cheat. But it'll be easier in places to talk about them all at once rather than sending you back and forth to different blog posts.

So here we go!

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

I'm going to start off by saying that I love Auggie SO much and I hope Dominic grows up to be just like him. He is such a fabulous guy with the unfortunate luck to have Treacher-Collins Syndrome. It also made me appreciate that Dom doesn't have it as bad as Auggie does. Dom can get his cleft fixed and that will be the end of his superficial problems, Poor Auggie will never escape his, and it broke my heart many times throughout this novel.

This novel is narrated by several different kids throughout, which I generally enjoy. As Auggie is the natural voice of his story, I of course, loved his chapters, but my absolute favourite narrator was his sister Via (Olivia). She is SO sweet and caring and I hope Rosalie is as perfect of a sister as she is. Not only did I love her chapters because I loved her, but I also just found them better written. I'm not sure if this was intentional as a different voice, being older and all (Via is 14, Auggie is 10), but that definitely can't be said for all of the older characters. Via's boyfriend Justin narrates one and I was extremely annoyed by his. I don't think he ever used a capital letter or proper punctuation. I know it was an effort to create a voice for him, but his was the only chapter that was really that bad, and I found it irritating. It was still an informative chapter, and once I got used to it it wasn't so bad, but... there was room for improvement.

I think the basic "moral" to this story if you can say that there is one is that people should not be judged strictly on their appearance. Auggie is an amazing little kid, but I don't doubt for a second that these harsh judgments that happen upon him are fiction. We are an extremely superficial society, and although this book is fiction, I doubt these interactions are. Another possible moral could be something along the lines of one of the quotes that is mentioned in one of Auggie's English Classes "When given he choice between being right or being kind, choose kind" (Wayne W. Dyer). Really we should be nice to everyone until they give us a reason (and a GOOD reason, not just how they look) not to. 

One thing I can't remember if I have mentioned before or not, but when I feel strongly about a book, love it or hate it, I generally go to GoodReads and read the reviews that would be OPPOSITE to mine, so for example I LOVED this book, so I sought out poor reviews. I had written a whole rant about two reviews that I read that made me so so mad, but I decided not to include it. There was a lot of negativity in that rant, and I don't need to go there. But what I am going to say is that you cannot expect a Young Adult novel to be a complete downer. If you want gritty then go read The Kite Runner. Yes, this book might be a little "Rose Coloured Glasses"ish at times, but it's not rainbows and unicorns all the time either. I think it is a positive realism, and I hope that Dominic is so lucky to have the ability to take the perspective that Auggie does, as well as make the fantastic friends that he has.

From the very first day Auggie and Julian met in the pages of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wonder, it was clear they were never going to be friends, with Julian treating Auggie like he had the plague. And while Wonder told Auggie's story through six different viewpoints, Julian's perspective was never shared. Readers could only guess what he was thinking.

Until now. The Julian Chapter will finally reveal the bully's side of the story. Why is Julian so unkind to Auggie? And does he have a chance for redemption?

Is there anything in a bully's actions that can truly be justified by what his perspective or life experience is? No. I don't think so, not really. People have done some pretty awful things in this world and just because a bully was bullied himself at one point, or has an older brother that picks on him, or his parents both work two jobs and he never sees them (none of which are the case with Julian, btw), and there are just as many people that have had the same things happen to them that would never bully anyone, ever. So excuse me if I am really harsh on Julian. 

I think that this novella was supposed to make you feel sorry for Julian and be reminded that there are two sides to every story, but I still feel Julian comes off really poorly, even after telling his own side of the story. I can understand that kids that have never had to interact with someone who looks like Auggie might not act well the first time, but becoming educated and making an effort to normalize a situation like that says a lot about ones character. Instead of embracing Auggie's transition into the school, Julian does everything to make it worse, with no effort to try to understand. And adding more fuel to the fire was that his parents made no effort either. That silver spoon was so far up Julian's yoo-hoo that no one cared about Auggie. I award negative a million character points to Julian and his family.

In an attempt to mention this without creating spoilers, I apologize for the vagueness... But dropping the Holocaust into Julian's family history seems like a complete cop-out to me. Was it an attempt to make this novella more educational? If it takes mentioning the Holocaust to make  a kid feel bad about what he's done, it means he's still a dink, just not as bad as Hitler. 

I liked this novella even if I wasn't a fan of Julian. It sort of answered the question "what's that kid's problem?!" while reading Wonder (the answer being that Julian's problem is that he's a selfish dink), but wasn't completely necessary. But it was enlightening on a few aspects, so it's got that going for it.

Christopher was Auggie's best friend from the time they were babies until his family moved away; he was there through all of Auggie's surgeries and heartbreaks, through bad times and good—like Star Wars marathons and dreams of traveling to Pluto together.  Alternating between childhood flashbacks and the present day, an especially bad day for Christopher,Pluto is the story of two boys grown apart learning that good friendships are worth a little extra effort.

I can honestly say that I liked Chris right from the start. He is mentioned in Wonder, somewhat in passing, but always came off as a good kid. After reading Pluto, I can say that I love him almost as much as I love Auggie and Via. He's not without flaws, he's got an absentmindedness about him that would drive any parent crazy at times, but he really is a sweet kid.

I think the whole point of this story is just that sometimes it's not easy to be friends with someone like Auggie, especially when you are young kids and have completely separate circles of friends. Growing up with Auggie made it so Chris, for the longest time, never saw him the way other people do. Auggie was normalized for him without any effort. He saw, and liked, Auggie for his personality and not his appearance. Once Chris' family moved and he developed a circle of friends that weren't familliar with Auggie it makes it harder on Chris because those friends don't accept Auggie unconditionally, and more than likely will not spend enough time with Auggie to become comfortable with him, all they see is his facial abnormality. In many ways it's easier for the friends that Auggie makes at his new school because they are all getting to know him at the same time, and they see him every day, and people will accept him for that. So it's a bit tougher for Chris.

Overall, I found this novella a bit unnecessary for moving Auggie's story forward, I didn't feel I gained anything extra by reading this story, but I still really enjoyed it. I liked getting to know Chris even if it didn't change how I felt about Auggie or his situation. I don't think it is absolutely necessary to read this novella if you don't want to. 

I just love reading about Auggie's little universe and I hope there are plenty of full sized sequels to come in the future. I would be completely happy to read about the rest of Auggie's time at Beecher Prep, perhaps with how other new students react to him, maybe about his transition to Highschool... so many options. Hope my wishes come true!