Wonder
R.J. Palacio (2012)
“A boy with a face that shocks strangers walks into fifth grade for the first time — and the whole school has to decide who they want to be.”
At a Glance
Ten-year-old August 'Auggie' Pullman was born with a severe facial difference that has kept him homeschooled his whole life. When his parents enroll him in Beecher Prep for fifth grade, he must navigate a new school where everyone stares, some kids bully, and the social cost of being his friend is real. Told from multiple perspectives — Auggie, his sister Via, his friend Jack, and classmates Julian and Miranda — the novel tracks one school year in which cruelty and kindness collide, and ordinary people are asked to be better than ordinary.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Wonder debuted in February 2012 and immediately became a phenomenon: 100+ weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, translated into 45+ languages, and adopted into curriculums at every level from second grade through middle school within two years of publication. By 2017 it had sold more than 8 million copies and been adapted into a film starring Jacob Tremblay and Julia Roberts. It is the novel most frequently cited by middle-school teachers as a catalyst for classroom conversations about empathy, disability, and inclusion — not as an 'issues' book but as a story children choose to keep reading.
Diction Profile
Informal and accessible — each narrator has a distinct register calibrated to age, personality, and emotional situation
Low to moderate