Wonder / Wonder, Movie Tie-In Edition

Ordinary

I know I m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don t get stared at wherever they go.

If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all. I would wish that I could walk down the street without people seeing me and then doing that look-away thing. Here s what I think: the only reason I m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.

But I m kind of used to how I look by now. I know how to pretend I don t see the faces people make. We ve all gotten pretty good at that sort of thing: me, Mom and Dad, Via. Actually, I take that back: Via s not so good at it. She can get really annoyed when people do something rude. Like, for instance, one time in the playground some older kids made some noises. I don t even know what the noises were exactly because I didn t hear them myself, but Via heard and she just started yelling at the kids. That s the way she is. I m not that way.

Via doesn t see me as ordinary. She says she does, but if I were ordinary, she wouldn t feel like she needs to protect me as much. And Mom and Dad don t see me as ordinary, either. They see me as extraordinary. I think the only person in the world who realizes how ordinary I am is me.

My name is August, by the way. I won t describe what I look like. Whatever you re thinking, it s probably worse.



Why I Didn t Go to School

Next week I start fifth grade. Since I ve never been to a real school before, I am pretty much totally and completely petrified. People think I haven t gone to school because of the way I look, but it s not that. It s because of all the surgeries I ve had. Twenty-seven since I was born. The bigger ones

R.J. Palacio lives in New York City with her husband, two sons, and two dogs. For more than twenty years, she was an art director and graphic designer, designing book jackets for other people while waiting for the perfect time in her life to start writing her own novel. But one day several years ago, a chance encounter with an extraordinary child in front of an ice cream store made R. J. realize that the perfect time to write that novel had finally come. Wonder is her first novel. She did not design the cover, but she sure does love it. Her other books include 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts and Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories. Learn more about her at wonderthebook.com or on Twitter @RJPalacio.

Praise for Wonder:

#1 New York Times bestseller
USA Today bestseller
Time Magazine's 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time
New York Times Book Review Notable Book
Washington Post Best Kids' Book

A School Library Journal Best of Children's Books 

A Publishers Weekly Best of Children's Books 

A Kirkus Reviews Best of Children's Books 

A Booklist Best of Children's Books 

Slate.com:
"Wonder is the best kids' book of the year."

Entertainment Weekly: 
"In a wonder of a debut, Palacio has written a crackling page-turner filled with characters you can't help but root for."

The New York Times:
"Rich and memorable...It's Auggie and the rest of the children who are the real heart of 'Wonder,' and Palacio captures the voices of girls and boys, fifth graders and teenagers, with equal skill."

The Wall Street Journal:
"What makes R.J. Palacio's debut novel so remarkable, and so lovely, is the uncommon generosity with which she tells Auggie's story The result is a beautiful, funny and sometimes sob-making story of quiet transformation.

The Huffington Post: 
"It's in the bigger themes that Palacio's writing shines. This book is a glorious exploration of the nature of friendship, tenacity, fear, and most importantly, kindness."

"Full of heart, full of truth, Wonder is a book about seeing the beauty that's all around us.  I dare you not to fall in love with Auggie Pullman."
- Rebecca Stead, Newbery award-winning author of When You Reach Me

"It is the deceptive simplicity and honesty of the work that make Wonder so memorable. Every single character seems real and well drawn and oh-so human...This book is beautiful." - Christopher Paul Curtis, Newbery award-winning author of Bud,