Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Wonder by R. J. Palacio is a great young adult novel. It explores the life of a 5th grader who has some significant congenital disabilities, August. The author R. J. Palacio writes her chapters in two to three-page chunks and jumps around a year's time from different perspectives. Wonder was really well done and creative.

Sometimes I laughed so hard I cried, and other times I cried so hard my kids laughed. It was a lovely story to read aloud to elementary school age kids. Probably one of the drawbacks is the use of slang like "stupid" and "Shut up" and "God." As a parent who doesn't want to hear my little kids use those words I am sensitive to what words I say to them, so when reading those words, I changed them. There is a lot of lying too, and that gave us an opportunity to talk about honesty. Finally, the author uses many cultural references that will soon date her work and place it outside of the range of her readership. So the lasting power of such a book will be severely tested.

Overall, it is a good read and introduction to the world of those who have deficits.