KidLit Forum

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Ch.6. August
In this chapter, August learn to wear hearing aids. His sister, Via feel ashamed because of him and she didn`t tell her family about her school play. With the help of Justin, the Pullman family find out Via`s school play and go to see her. Suddenly Miranda doesn`t feel well and Via gets her rule. At the end of this chapter, Via gets the attention from her family as she wondered.
Unfortunately, Daisy-the dog -who was always been around Auggie to comfort him to cuddle him, died. Auggie will be forced to grow up and face the world without her.
Ch. 7. Miranda
Miranda rarely see her father and her mother is very distant too because they are divorced. She feels lost without parents and friends. She lost also her best friend Via and her brother Auggie. To keep others attention started to lie about her family.
Miranda wants to win back Via`s friendship and she is able to do everything to achieve it. In that night before the school play gets started, she lies to the director that she doesn`t feel well and cannot perform. In this way, Via appears as the female character instead of being the understudy. Via realized that Miranda wants to save their friendship and forgive her.
Ch. 8. August
Auggie and his class are going for three days and two nights to a nature reserve in Pennsylvania. He never was out of home at night before.
The first sight of his maturity is when Auggie wants to bring his stuffed bear with him for comfort and in the morning before leaves, he changes his mind and removes the bear from his bag.
The second sight of maturity is when Auggie and Jack had troubles with another group of older kids.From that night Auggie is known for his bravely, only Julian treats him badly.
At the end of this chapter, Auggie gets a new haircut that makes him look more grown up.His father recognizes that he threw out his astronaut helmet, and Mr. Tushman decided to give him the final award, the Henry Ward Beecher medal. For the first time, Auggie feels like everyone wants to be close to him because he is a “wonder”.

"I wish every day could be Halloween. We could all wear masks all the time. Then we could walk around and get to know each other before we go to see what we looked like under the masks."

Even if, Auggie has a facial disease , he is a normal child inside.This quote indicates Auggie s desire to be known as a normal child.With mask is a normal and funny boy. Auggie wants everyone to realize that it matters more what is on the inside than on the outside.He is seen as a Wonder because he has a strong character and kindness.In WONDER , every reader can find a lesson.

We all wear masks. It protects us from our imperfections, weakness, and fears.We forget that our imperfections make us human, unique and relatable.

The thing is we have to put up with our faults and bad days. If we don't accept ourselves the way we are, we cannot expect the others to. As August's sister says "unless you want to be treated like a baby the rest of your life, or like a kid with special needs, you just have to suck it up and go." (Kindle, loc. 1476 of 3817)

The powerful message of this book is "it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it's what's on the inside that counts". Antoine de Saint-Exupery tells this very beautifully in "The Little Prince": "It is only with one's heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." Palacio used this words to begin one of the chapters of the book. I think the beauty of this work stays in these wonderful and meaningful statements you can read here and there or at the beginning of the chapters.

Mr. Browne, the teacher is one of my favorite characters. He made the kids write some "precepts" in their English notebooks and he explained that these were some ground rules that could motivate them. Some of these were: "WHEN GIVEN THE CHOICE BETWEEN BEING RIGHT OR BEING KIND, CHOOSE KIND", "YOUR DEEDS ARE YOUR MONUMENTS", "JUST FOLLOW THE DAY AND REACH FOR THE SUN" etc. It made me think I could use some of these in my classes. My students could comment on them and they would also learn some rules about the important things in life.