Skip to main content

Book Review: Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Wonder by R.J. Palacio is a beautifully written book about a young boy called August. Because of the boy’s facial deformity he is often being ignored by others, laughed at, ridiculed, stared at every second, and judged by appearance. All this when he is barely ten years old. The agony which he undergoes every time while dealing with all this ugly stuff, makes this tale an extraordinary one.


While narrating the little boy’s plight of facial deformity, other issues like bullying, body shaming, parenting and lot of other important issues are dealt with a lot of sensitivity. While the story revolves around Auggie's life, the author has beautifully brought in the different perspectives of the people around. The way the language differs with each character's narration is mesmerizing; one can almost hear each of their voices.

The book is wonderfully written, using simple words and doling out valuable lessons. Readers may go on an emotional roller coaster while reading the book - anxious at times, beaming with pride, happy tears, lump in throat. For or less, this is most certainly one of the most favourite books for people who handle children with deformities.

August has a loving family - a cool dad whose humour pulls them up, elder sister Olivia who loves Auggie despite the sacrifices she has to make due to the extra attention and care he needs, his loving and protective mom who loves him unconditionally, his dog Daisy who loves him for who he is. Also his friends who stand up for him against all odds. Like one of them mentions, the bravest thing they have done is probably being friends with Auggie, knowing very well how almost the entire school is against them. Each character is beautifully sketched out.

The director of the school, Mr.Tushman, embodies educators who not just do their job but inspire children to be better humans. In a world where such people are fast dwindling, hope there is at least a Tushman for every school.

The journey of Auggie is not just a story of a little boy grappling with societal acceptance but also of triumph of kindness, courage and love. This is the story of a kid wanting a normal life. The world needs these important messages of kindness, empathy, friendship, values, courage and love to be reinforced and shared until it becomes a way of life.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r