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challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
As a special education teacher who has been making an effort to listen directly to disabled voices for many years now, this book was a bit of a disappointment. My main critique is not that R.J. Palacio did a bad job representing challenges that affect people with facial deformaties, but its more about the surface level message of the book. Auggie experiences ableism on a daily basis and the message seems to be that if you just hold tight and have a positive outlook, the people around you will get used to it and realize they need to be more kind. My problem with this story is that it puts Auggie in such a passive role, entirely at the whims of the able-bodied people around him. The only plot point is that he is getting bullied until magically one day all the other kids stop bullying him and realize he’s been brave and kind the whole time. It bothers me that people in this story (and even the author, based on comments she’s made about her inspiration for the book) see Auggie as an opportunity to teach other kids a lesson and less as a person who has agency of his own. I think that intention is reflected in how entire sections are written not from Auggie’s perspective, but instead from his friends perspective to show how being Auggie’s friend is teaching them to be better. There’s nothing wrong with a message about teaching kindness, but I encourage people to read more from disabled authors for more nuanced stories about disability!