Wonder by R.J. Palacio is the type of book you can never get tired of, no matter what age you’re at when you read it. When I started to reread it, the voice of the main character, Auggie, bugged me a little bit because of his ten-year-old, “babyish” talk, and I thought it would end up being one of those books I loved as a younger kid but would never read again because I was just too old. The further I got into the story, however, the more I fell in love.

One of the greatest aspects of this story is the honesty the characters show. They don’t try to hide their feelings or sugar coat a bad experience – things just are what they are. I love that, because with a novel like this, transparency helps you understand what the characters are going through. Whoever is reading the book can connect with it because they’ve all felt the same way as at least one of the main characters at one point or another. This honesty also portrays the characters as extremely innocent, but the biggest problem in the book, which is bullying, makes you question how innocent they truly are.

Bullying, a major – and sometimes devastating – aspect of many children’s lives, plays a large role in Wonder. Auggie, a child with many facial deformities brought on only by a mixture of many unlucky genes, has a face that makes people stare. They also scream sometimes, or get really grossed out. Auggie knows this, and he hates it like any normal person would, but he doesn’t let that stop him from being himself. He certainly has many insecurities and is very shy, but once he goes to school, he becomes much more confident. The bullies he faces every day do of course hurt his feelings, but his reactions to them, when he doesn’t let them get to him, are very mature. Does he ignore them because he doesn’t know enough to truly be hurt? Or is his attitude hardened because of everything he has already had to face in life? My thoughts are with the latter.

Character development is what really makes this such a heartwarming tale. Seeing a young, shy boy grow into someone who is comfortable with their face – no matter how strange – and can make new friends and deal with mean bullies is fantastic, but it’s really the other characters that give me hope for society. Some characters automatically befriend the weird looking new boy. These ones amaze everyone the most because of their initial ability to look past someone’s outside appearance. To me, the ones that grow to become better people are just as wonderful. Kids who once were especially rude to Auggie soon become good friends with him, and they learn to stop judging their peers so harshly.

Wonder teaches everyone, not just kids, to be kind to anyone no matter their looks. It’s important for young people to read because it shows them how they should properly act in school and in life, but it’s also good for older people because it can remind them of kindness in a seemingly innocent way. I’d tell anyone that they should read this book, because it shows the finer points of both hatred and kindness, and leaves you really thinking about how you affect other’s lives. As Auggie says, “The only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.”

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