Wonder

 

My hagwon is very special- I am required to read and teach about Newberry Medal winning books to kids.  For this, I love my work.  I have read some boring books, to be sure, but I have also read some amazing books as well.  One of those amazing books is called Wonder by R.J. Palacio.
Over the years I have read countless books.  If I had to make an estimate, I'd have to guess vaguely that it is somewhere above 400 or 450 (assuming around 25 books a year, and that I started reading on my own at 8 years old).  Though to be honest, it's probably way more than that.  In all that time, I have never read a book like this.
There have been stories that moved me to tears, swept me off my feet, carried me away to the past or shot me forward to the future.  Taught me about economics, psychology, or history.  Granted me a view of what the world would have been like with one or two key changes.  In all of those books, this is the first to touch on a topic I've never known another author to- and for that reason, I am recommending it to you.
Let me explain my background a little to you, so that you can understand why it stands out so much to me.  I am from a family of four: my mother, father, brother and myself.  Everything about my family was normal (my parents worked, my brother and I went to school, we had a house with two dogs, a cat, fish, I was in girl scouts, etc), except for one thing.  My brother is mentally disabled.  I don't mention him much, simply because I am a very private woman and believe it is no one else's business basically.  I am also extremely protective of him.  Though I've improved greatly, when younger, all the way up until college honestly, I would become very upset and angry at those who made "mentally retarded" jokes, and it took an ex and two very dear friends, J and K, to help me learn to not take it so personally.  Although other familys with children who are disabled do exist, most of them only have one child to speak of.  I know, I've met many of them over the years at my brothers private schools he attended, or at volunteering with the kids.  Though I never felt alone as a sibling to a mentally disabled brother, it has remained a part of my life many don't understand. On the few occasions I allow the topic to be talked about, I usually end up getting the pity look.  Folks would nod their heads like they understand, and say how sorry they are.  Or how hard things must have been for me and my family.  It frustrates me.
When I picked up the book Wonder to read for work, I didn't know what it was about really.  It became obvious pretty fast that it is about a kid, August, who has some facial deformities, with the main story centering around his first year at a real school.  It was a dull read at first, moving pretty slow, and I have to say I wasn't too impressed.  Then the section written from August's point of view ends, and we are introduced to the same world from his sister's point of view.  Reading her first page made my heart start beating fast and attention become tunnel-like.  I couldn't believe it- the first ever book where a character has to process and deal with being the older sibling to someone with special needs.  It was overwhelming at first.  Not everything that happens for the sibling, Olivia/Via, is the same for me, but much of it is.  The way that the family revolves around the brother August, how genetics is something she will one day have to worry about, feeling guilty for wanting to have a normal life away from her brother, knowing and being unable to help when your brother has to fight against being aware that he is different from others, feeling pure anger towards those who would and do make fun of kids with disabilities- it hit close to home in a way no story ever had before.  There are books out there about every topic under the sun, and maybe I simply hadn't taken the time to look, but I have never come across another story like this one.  I have to tell you, it felt good to be understood, and to understand where this character, Via, was coming from. 
Wonder is not the best book you will ever read, and it probably won't change your life.  It will though, help you understand a world that many people are still afraid of.  If you would like to know what it is like to be someone with a disability or physical deformity, how different life is for the entire family, and for siblings like me, read this book.  It will grant you a very rare glimpse and give you a small fraction of an idea of the world that other people live in.
If you do read it, let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Always,
Rita