This is August’s story, after all, and August is the only person who understands what it’s like to face the big, bad world when all the world sees is his disfigured face. I’ve never been a fan of shifting perspectives, mainly because the narrative style feels like a cop-out, as if the author does not possess the storytelling chops to deliver the story’s nuances through a single narrator. And this is the genius of Palacio’s storytelling. Palacio, may not look like most kids his age, but he sure sounds a lot like them. Sure, this central character in the coming-of-age novel, Wonder by R. He’s a gloriously, spectacularly, and reassuringly ordinary 10-year-old kid. ADULT REVIEW | Jess Laheyĭespite his first-sentence assertion, “I know I’m not an ordinary 10-year-old kid,” August Pullman is just that. Wonder comes close to making us understand what the life of someone with a deformity such as August’s would be like, and that is no small feat. Even the hardships that most of us will never have to face. Palacio makes every moment of August’s life seem real. Wonder’s emotional moments work because the reader is so fully attached to the characters. It’s equally as easy to love those kids who befriend August. It’s easy to hate the parents and their kids who are so uncomfortable with August that they want him removed from the school. And Palacio doesn’t shy away from showing how parent-teacher politics play into this “war,” as August calls it.
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