I gave this book to my Couchsurfing host in Singapore with some gifts from Vietnam
“Wonder” is a children book written by Raquel Jaramillo, under the pen name of R J Palacio. The book was published on February 14, 2012 and adapted into a movie in 2017. Additionally, the book has also been translated in to 29 languages.
The main character Auggie was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was homeschooled until fifth grade. Auggie is a brave kid who went through twenty-seven surgeries within ten years and grows up every day as a wonder in life. He knows his condition and how bad people react when seeing him. Fortunately, he is optimistic enough to think himself as a normal kid and “the only reason I am not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way”. His parents finally decide to send him to a private school, Beecher Prep, where he starts the fifth grade. He is bullied at school by the way he looks. In return for this, he has a wonderful family and really good friends who willing stand by him no matter what, it strongly helps him overcome hurt to move on.
I like the way the author builds the story. She lets her characters tell their stories, thoughts and feelings. The story is narrated by Auggie and other characters in his life. It makes me feel warmer inside and be grateful to people for their kindness. It can bring you a lot of laugh and bring tears to your eyes, too. A very beautiful book.
Auggie reminds me of a discussion I stumbled upon in a forum long time ago that was “Is it acceptable to abort a baby with birth defects?”. Perhaps it depends on what kind of defects and how serious it is but what we wanted to discuss was extreme ones with high medical needs. What if parents weren’t prepared well for it and what if children couldn’t overcome all those difficulties and adapt to the society. It would be unbearable sufferings for both parents and babies. Truthfully, Auggie had a bad luck when he was born with a congenital malformation, but he was lucky enough to have such a great family, true friends and lots of kind people around him. Although it is impossible to have a happy ending for all stories and we have to face more things in life, but I believe those stories like Auggie’s make us stay positive and want to be a person who makes contribution in someone’s good life.
“There are always going to be jerks in the world, Auggie,” she said, looking at me. “But I really believe, and Daddy really believes, that there are more good people on this earth than bad people, and the good people watch out for each other and take care of each other.”- Wonder –
It would be easy to say bad words to others whom you don’t like, but you would never know how much those words could hurt them. What I also realized that was even you could easily hurt someone by your carelessness no matter what you mean it or not.
“Sometimes you don’t have to mean to hurt someone to hurt someone.” – Wonder –
The author was inspired by Natalie Merchant’s song with the same name, which is about a child born with birth defect. She wrote it after her three-year-old son reacting badly to a girl with severe facial deformity. She realizes that this occurrence could give a valuable lesson. The full story behind the book, you can find it here: https://wonderthebook.com/about
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