【Book Review】Wonder

Wonder

    The reason why I haven’t posted any book reviews for the last several days is that I was busy with school stuff. Since I am currently a junior student in high school, there are tons of things that I have to deal with, which takes most of my leisure time. I have to get fully prepared for the college application, join the school activities, and prepare for my new SAT test. I try to squeeze my books reading time into my busy schedule, and I manage to read one book for the past four days. To be honest, I am pretty satisfied with my progress because I don’t have much time for books recently. Now without unrelated stuff, I will tell you what my feeling is toward this book.

    Wonder tells a story about a young ten-year-old boy August “Auggie”, who has a facial deformity due to some sort of genetic problem. Auggie has been homeschooled by his mother ever since he was old enough to learn. However, when Auggie is ten years old, his parents are resolved to send him to a normal elementary school. Together with anxiety and fear, Auggie starts his new life in his new school. At first, Auggie struggles a lot because every other student is afraid of Auggie’s appearance. Even though Auggie is isolated by others, he is then able to develop several friendships and finally gains the acceptance of other people.

    First of all, I didn’t anticipate to like this book when I first read it. I bought this book solely because I heard some positive comments from some people I subscribe on YouTube. Since I trust their tastes on books, I then decided to purchase Wonder, read it, and see what will happen. This book turns out to be one of my favorite middle grade books ever. Of course, I gave five out of five stars on GoodReads. Actually, I want to give it one hundred stars if I can. I admit that I even sobbed several times when I read book, which doesn’t happen normally.

    This is not just a book about how to grow up while facing difficulties and challenges. It is also a book about kinship and friendship development. The story is told from different perspectives, which gives the reader a better view of the plot. Every single character has his or her own story, and these different perspectives are great pleasure to read. The author is very good at writing books from the perspective of young children. Her writing style not only is extremely accessible and fun to read, but also makes me completely immerse into the story. As readers, we can see the transformation and maturation of each character, including Auggie, Via which is Auggie’s bigger sister, and Jack, the classmate and friend of Auggie. Auggie is loveable and intelligent. His story tells us that we shouldn’t judge other people solely by their physical appearances.

-Spoiler Book Discussion-

    There are several parts in the story that are really poignant. The first part is when Auggie finds out that not only do other students don’t want to talk to him, but also afraid to even make physical contacts with him. Sometimes, young children tend to do things without realizing how cruel their behaviors are. The second part is when Auggie wears a different costume during the Halloween, he hears the comments made by Jack when he enters the room. I admit that I hate Jack so much at the moment that I want to punch him on his face when I read this part. Wonder is such a great book, because it is revealing and it can easily move us with its words.

    There is no doubt that my favorite character is Auggie. He is such a brave young kid, who suffers a lot through his life time. I kept imagining myself in such circumstances, I probably will not have the courage to live. Auggie’s family members are also heartwarming. Their relationships are not perfect, sometimes they have to go through arguments and quarrels, however, they manage to fix their problems and keep loving each other deeply. It’s lucky that they doesn’t face financial problems, in fact, I personally believe Auggie’s family is actually quite wealthy. Of course, I don’t mean that they can spend money on whatever things they want. It’s just that Auggie’s myriad surgeries must cost a giant fortune, and there are many Star Wars figures and an IMac in Auggie’s room. Those, I believe, are indications of Auggie’s relatively wealthy family condition.

    My favorite parts of the story are no doubt the last part where the school holds an award ceremony. I heard some people thinks that the ending is not that realistic, but since this book’s target audiences are children, and children love books with happy endings, it doesn’t matter that much. Besides, I really love the ending and I am completely OK with it. Also, I adore the quote from Auggie which is “I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.” From my perspective, this quote just corresponded so well to the ending.

    Overall, this book is definitely going to be one of my favorite books in 2016. Everyone, no matter adults or children, should all read it, and contemplate the underlying meanings of this book. We shouldn’t judge a person’s character only by his or her appearance (though I always judge a book by its cover…). Also, try to show a little more kindness to other people, maybe the unconscious little behavior of yours can save the day of another person.