Realistic Fiction: Wonder
Title: Wonder
Author and Illustrator: R.J. Palacio
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Major Awards: Texas Blue Bonnet Award Master List, New York Times Best Seller, Maine Student Book Award, Vermont's Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award, Mark Twain Award, among may others.
Age Group: 8-14
Wonder, by R.J. Palacio is a realistic fiction novel about a young boy named August (Auggie) Pullman. Auggie isn't like everyone else; although he considers himself to be an ordinary kid, he is far from ordinary. Auggie was born with a facial abnormality, and because of this he spent a lot of his early life in and out of hospitals and was never able to go to school until his 5th grade year which is when the story takes place. Throughout the duration of his fifth grade year, Auggie didn't have it easy, his classmates weren't always nice to him and they would do and say really mean things to him. Although Auggie did experience some hard times in school, he did come across some incredible people. Some of those major influences can be found in both friends and teachers, and he always had the unwavering love of his mom, dad,sister Via,and his dog Daisy. The book itself is told from the perspective of August, Auggie's sister Via, Auggie's classmates and friends Summer and Jack Will, Via's boyfriend Justin, and Via's childhood friend Miranda. The story being told from each of these characters unique perspectives, shows a very important lesson that everyone has something that they're battling, whether it be physical or invisible each one of the people who were narrating the story had something they were going through. Auggie was being bullied in school, Via was struggling with friends and feeling invisible in her own family, Summer was being for being friends with Auggie. Jack Will was struggling between doing what was right and what was easy, and wasn't always a friend to Auggie. Justin was having difficulty managing school and extracurricular, and Miranda was having family troubles and her and Via weren't speaking. throughout the course of the story. Several things happen that further open peoples hearts to Auggie. The story ends at the fifth grade graduation with Auggie receiving the Henry Ward Beecher medal, and the entire crowd screaming and clapping and giving him a standing ovation.
This book is a Wonder-ful addition to have in all 3rd- 8th grade class libraries. The book is not only a beautifully written and told story, but it also teachers students the value of kindness, and what it means to be a friend to someone, which are universal lessons that are prevalent for any age group. There are several ways to integrate Wonder into the classroom! One that I myself would like to incorporate into my classroom is that in the book Auggie's English teacher Mr. Browne writes monthly precepts on the board and has students respond to what they believe is the message of the precept or what it means to them. After reading the book, I realized monthly precepts could be incorporated into the classroom where students can write a response each month about what the precept of the month meant to them, and maybe even like Mr. Browne have students create their own precept at the end of the year. A lot of the lessons surrounding Wonder are excellent because not only do they include the content learning, but they also include affective learning as well because the book is teaching students about kindness. For example, after the students read wonder the teacher could focus on the content area of English Language Arts and Writing and have students write a friendly letter to Auggie inviting him to come play. The lesson could also be expanded to talk about the affective and learning about citizenship and what are some characteristics of good citizenship, such as what it means to be kind. In an activity the students could create a T-chart of some of the events in the story that were nice and examples of characters being kind, and some of the events and examples from the story of characters that were not being kind. There are even fun resources online where students can take the "choose kind pledge", and there are handouts that say " choose kindness" and have a random act of kindness on it that the students can be given at the end of class where teachers can challenge their students to see if they can accomplish their random act of kindness before next class so they can share their experience.
Wonder is an excellent book that I believe teaches such valuable, pertinent, and universal lessons that everyone of all ages can learn from, and although the book is a bit more for older students there is actually a children's book "We're All Wonders" that is written by the same author and is a more condensed version of Auggie's story, but it still teachers the same valuable lesson to younger generations, that can also be included into the classroom to further spread the message to all generations to "choose kind".
Wonder, by R.J. Palacio is a realistic fiction novel about a young boy named August (Auggie) Pullman. Auggie isn't like everyone else; although he considers himself to be an ordinary kid, he is far from ordinary. Auggie was born with a facial abnormality, and because of this he spent a lot of his early life in and out of hospitals and was never able to go to school until his 5th grade year which is when the story takes place. Throughout the duration of his fifth grade year, Auggie didn't have it easy, his classmates weren't always nice to him and they would do and say really mean things to him. Although Auggie did experience some hard times in school, he did come across some incredible people. Some of those major influences can be found in both friends and teachers, and he always had the unwavering love of his mom, dad,sister Via,and his dog Daisy. The book itself is told from the perspective of August, Auggie's sister Via, Auggie's classmates and friends Summer and Jack Will, Via's boyfriend Justin, and Via's childhood friend Miranda. The story being told from each of these characters unique perspectives, shows a very important lesson that everyone has something that they're battling, whether it be physical or invisible each one of the people who were narrating the story had something they were going through. Auggie was being bullied in school, Via was struggling with friends and feeling invisible in her own family, Summer was being for being friends with Auggie. Jack Will was struggling between doing what was right and what was easy, and wasn't always a friend to Auggie. Justin was having difficulty managing school and extracurricular, and Miranda was having family troubles and her and Via weren't speaking. throughout the course of the story. Several things happen that further open peoples hearts to Auggie. The story ends at the fifth grade graduation with Auggie receiving the Henry Ward Beecher medal, and the entire crowd screaming and clapping and giving him a standing ovation.
This book is a Wonder-ful addition to have in all 3rd- 8th grade class libraries. The book is not only a beautifully written and told story, but it also teachers students the value of kindness, and what it means to be a friend to someone, which are universal lessons that are prevalent for any age group. There are several ways to integrate Wonder into the classroom! One that I myself would like to incorporate into my classroom is that in the book Auggie's English teacher Mr. Browne writes monthly precepts on the board and has students respond to what they believe is the message of the precept or what it means to them. After reading the book, I realized monthly precepts could be incorporated into the classroom where students can write a response each month about what the precept of the month meant to them, and maybe even like Mr. Browne have students create their own precept at the end of the year. A lot of the lessons surrounding Wonder are excellent because not only do they include the content learning, but they also include affective learning as well because the book is teaching students about kindness. For example, after the students read wonder the teacher could focus on the content area of English Language Arts and Writing and have students write a friendly letter to Auggie inviting him to come play. The lesson could also be expanded to talk about the affective and learning about citizenship and what are some characteristics of good citizenship, such as what it means to be kind. In an activity the students could create a T-chart of some of the events in the story that were nice and examples of characters being kind, and some of the events and examples from the story of characters that were not being kind. There are even fun resources online where students can take the "choose kind pledge", and there are handouts that say " choose kindness" and have a random act of kindness on it that the students can be given at the end of class where teachers can challenge their students to see if they can accomplish their random act of kindness before next class so they can share their experience.
Wonder is an excellent book that I believe teaches such valuable, pertinent, and universal lessons that everyone of all ages can learn from, and although the book is a bit more for older students there is actually a children's book "We're All Wonders" that is written by the same author and is a more condensed version of Auggie's story, but it still teachers the same valuable lesson to younger generations, that can also be included into the classroom to further spread the message to all generations to "choose kind".
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