Wonder by R.J. Palacio

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Title: Wonder
Genre: Fiction
Author/Illustrator: R.J. Palacio
Major awards: #1 NY Times Bestseller & Texas Bluebonnet Award
Age group: 4th-12th 

Summary
This book follows the life of August, a ten year old boy who's about to start middle school.  Augie is not like the other kids and he knows that.  He was born with a medical condition which caused him to have multiple facial surgeries that make him not look like a "normal" kid.  before starting school Augie goes on a guided tour of the school with three students who already have attended the school.  Here Augie gets his first taste of how he might be treated during school.  He is terrified but after talking with his parents he commits to going to school.  At school many events happen that help Augie formulate his opinion of the school.  These events include both the positive and the negative from dealing  with teachers to dealing with peers and social situations.  This being said Augie is still able to make a small core group of friends and have people like Summer who has his back through it all.  This novel is also shifts the point of view of the storyteller to different people in Augie's life and tells the same set of event from their perspective.  At the end of the book August has finally warmed up to the whole idea of school and is not scared anymore.  At the end of the year assembly Augie is even awarded the Henry Ward Beecher awarded for being of the utmost character inside and out.  This book showed the ups and downs of Augie's life and just how he got through it all and grew from it.
Evaluation
I loved this book and from an educator point of view I think this story provides a great deal of value to readers.  Firstly, I believe this story would be a good lesson on point of view since the book goes through multiple perspectives from different characters.  This would help teach how the same situation can affect different people in different ways.  Another value I believe that this novel would be key themes in life such as friendship and how much your words mean.  I would be more inclined to use this novel if I were teaching in middle school environment just because while the children in the story are a bit younger that might see glimpses of themselves in the characters, I know I did while I was reading them.

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