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A review by milliep
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
5.0
Wow. That's all I could think of after reading this book. I would rate it a whole lot more than 5 stars if I could. It has the same moral that David Lynch puts across in his film "Elephant Man" (inspired by real events): the real monster is not he who looks different, but he who treats others like monsters. This is a true story of how the human race should be.
I went into the store one day on a mission to finally buy some of the books on my wishlist, but when I got there, this book caught my attention. I don't know what it was about it. I saw the bright blue cover with a boy with one eye and large ears, picked it up and read the blurb:
"My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse."
After reading this, I thought that the book would recount the story of a teenage girl who had problems with her looks, and thought that it would not be of any interest to me, but seeing the numerous praises that feature on the book by a lot of well-known newspapers, I decided to give it a try.
And I am so happy that I did. The book is heart-warming and sad at the same time. The reader sees the evolution of the story through the eyes of different characters, since the book is divided into 8 parts. The parts where we see the story through August really got to me. (One of the parts is written without capital letters. As someone who gets annoyed when a text isn't justified when written on a computer, this really annoyed me at first! Thankfully the part didn't last long!)
I normally don't get very emotional whilst reading single books, because unlike in a series where you are with the characters for so long, I don't feel extremely attached to them, but in this book all of the characters are so realistic, my eyes were watery towards the end.
In the words of [a:Nicholas Sparks|2345|Nicholas Sparks|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1332884095p2/2345.jpg] ([b:The Notebook|15931|The Notebook (The Notebook, #1)|Nicholas Sparks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385738917s/15931.jpg|1498135]) "Do yourself a favour and read this book - your life will be better for it".
Favourite passages:
"To me, though, I'm just me. An ordinary kid. But hey, if you want to give me a medal for being me, that's okay. I'll take it. I didn't destroy a Death Star or anything, but I did just get through fifth grade. And that's not easy, even if you're not me." p306
pages 286 - 287
Mr Tushman's speech p298-301 & 303 - 304
I went into the store one day on a mission to finally buy some of the books on my wishlist, but when I got there, this book caught my attention. I don't know what it was about it. I saw the bright blue cover with a boy with one eye and large ears, picked it up and read the blurb:
"My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse."
After reading this, I thought that the book would recount the story of a teenage girl who had problems with her looks, and thought that it would not be of any interest to me, but seeing the numerous praises that feature on the book by a lot of well-known newspapers, I decided to give it a try.
And I am so happy that I did. The book is heart-warming and sad at the same time. The reader sees the evolution of the story through the eyes of different characters, since the book is divided into 8 parts. The parts where we see the story through August really got to me. (One of the parts is written without capital letters. As someone who gets annoyed when a text isn't justified when written on a computer, this really annoyed me at first! Thankfully the part didn't last long!)
I normally don't get very emotional whilst reading single books, because unlike in a series where you are with the characters for so long, I don't feel extremely attached to them, but in this book all of the characters are so realistic, my eyes were watery towards the end.
In the words of [a:Nicholas Sparks|2345|Nicholas Sparks|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1332884095p2/2345.jpg] ([b:The Notebook|15931|The Notebook (The Notebook, #1)|Nicholas Sparks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385738917s/15931.jpg|1498135]) "Do yourself a favour and read this book - your life will be better for it".
Favourite passages:
"To me, though, I'm just me. An ordinary kid. But hey, if you want to give me a medal for being me, that's okay. I'll take it. I didn't destroy a Death Star or anything, but I did just get through fifth grade. And that's not easy, even if you're not me." p306
pages 286 - 287
Mr Tushman's speech p298-301 & 303 - 304