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Common sense media reviewers.

Moving tale of facially different boy with inner beauty.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Wonder's greatest lessons are more emotional or be

Wonder has a powerful way of reminding readers tha

Almost all of the adults in Wonder are strong role

Main character Auggie has a craniofacial condition

Auggie's friend Jack Will punches another boy. Som

Auggie's high school-age sister, Via, has a boyfri

No curse words, but a lot of hate speech and insul

Auggie and a couple of his classmates come across

Parents need to know that Wonder is about 10-year-old August "Auggie" Pullman, who has a genetic facial difference. After being homeschooled, he enters school for the first time in fifth grade and has to cope with a range of reactions to his unusual appearance, as well as a lot of typical middle school drama…

Educational Value

Wonder 's greatest lessons are more emotional or behavioral than academic. But the book does go into some detail about genetics and the probability of a child developing physical differences like Auggie's. The novel also offers a telling look at middle school life and curriculum and a bit of information about the differences between middle school and high school culture. One of the teachers, Mr. Browne, teaches his students about precepts, and they discuss a new precept every month. Many of these are great life lessons from authors, spiritual leaders, and philosophers.

Positive Messages

Wonder has a powerful way of reminding readers that beauty is only skin deep. The novel also offers lessons about the dangers of responding to peer pressure and the importance of simple human kindness. The precepts that Mr. Browne teaches his students also introduce various meaningful ideas.

Positive Role Models

Almost all of the adults in Wonder are strong role models for Auggie; his sister, Via; and their friends. Auggie's parents, in particular, are so loving, devoted, patient, and kind that their kids' friends wish they could join the Pullman family. Auggie's teachers and Mr. Tushman, the director of Beecher Prep, are caring educators who deftly ease Auggie out of some challenging situations but also let him find his own way socially. Auggie himself shows grace, as well as enough believable kid emotion to make him as convincing as he is admirable.

Diverse Representations

Main character Auggie has a craniofacial condition, and the book centers around his experiences. He's a complex character with realistic kid emotions and flaws. The rest of his family members provide great examples of how to support a loved one living with a visible disability. Though the novel stops short of endorsing disability hierarchy, it does unfortunately use casual ableism when Auggie yells, "I'm not retarded!" (It's never explained to Auggie that this isn't acceptable.) As written by female author R.J. Palacio, women in the book, such as Auggie's mom and sister, have important roles. Characters' ethnicities aren't made clear, but physical markers include Auggie's brown eyes, Via's "olive skin and the bluest eyes," and Mr. Tushman's "blue eyes with white eyelashes," and there are supporting characters with blond and brown hair. A minor character is named Mrs. Garcia.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Auggie's friend Jack Will punches another boy. Some seventh-grade kids pick on Auggie and his friends, and physically assault them. Kids are pushed, bruised, and scraped, and a child's sweatshirt is torn; the violence in this scene is preceded by verbal abuse, which makes the physical attack especially disturbing. A family experiences the loss of a beloved pet.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Auggie's high school-age sister, Via, has a boyfriend, and they kiss a few times.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

No curse words, but a lot of hate speech and insults. Other children call Auggie an "alien," an "orc," and a "freak"; they slip notes into his locker telling him to "Get out of our school," and they pretend he has a contagious disease that they call the Plague. Auggie himself uses discriminatory language when he yells "I'm not retarded!"

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Auggie and a couple of his classmates come across some seventh-grade kids whom they observe smoking. It's not entirely clear whether they're smoking cigarettes or pot.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Wonder is about 10-year-old August "Auggie" Pullman, who has a genetic facial difference. After being homeschooled, he enters school for the first time in fifth grade and has to cope with a range of reactions to his unusual appearance, as well as a lot of typical middle school drama. Some kids use hateful language, and some people suggest that Auggie is mentally deficient. These situations are upsetting, as are other hardships that Auggie's family endures, including the loss of a beloved family pet. But goodness wins out, and readers should find it inspiring and uplifting. A high school couple kisses a few times, and Auggie observes some seventh-grade kids smoking, but it's not clear whether they're smoking cigarettes or pot. The book was adapted for the 2017 film starring Julia Roberts , Owen Wilson , and Jacob Tremblay . The audiobook version, read by Nick Podehl , Kate Rudd, and Diana Steele, was named a 2013 Notable Children's Recording by the American Library Association.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (58)
• Kids say (272)

Based on 58 parent reviews

Read this! It’s awesome!

What's the story.

August "Auggie" Pullman is a fifth-grade boy with a craniofacial condition. His loving parents and sister have shielded him from many outside influences before WONDER begins, and he's been homeschooled up until that point. But at the start of the book, his mother has decided that it's time for Auggie to brave a group schooling experience. Auggie is upset and afraid to face the other kids' reactions to his appearance, but there's also part of him that wants to do "normal" things. The director of his new school, Mr. Tushman, introduces Auggie to a small group of students before school starts, thinking this will help ease the transition. While some of the students Auggie meets are accepting and kind, others are a bit put off by him, and still others are downright cruel. The novel follows Auggie's first year of middle school from beginning to end. It's a year in which Auggie experiences the best and the worst of human nature and a year of tremendous emotional growth for him.

Is It Any Good?

Auggie himself is a very convincing and poignant character -- definitely not just a device -- and his story is extremely moving and uplifting. Author R.J. Palacio writes Wonder in multiple voices, including Auggie's, some of his friends', and his sister's. The different points of view are mostly very well-realized and show the inner feelings of the different characters -- though a couple of aspects of Wonder don't ring fully true. Auggie's parents are almost too perfect to be believed, and the main mean kid in the novel is a bit too easily dispensed with.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about peer pressure and how it's portrayed in Wonder . Sometimes we feel pushed to reject someone -- even a friend -- because others don't like that person. How would you handle the situation that Jack Will faces?

Why do you think some people are cruel to Auggie?

If you wrote a precept -- like Mr. Browne's class does -- what would it be?

Do you think Auggie's parents did the right thing in sending him to school? Why, or why not?

In what ways does Wonder encourage compassion ? Which characters seem the most compassionate to you? Why is this an important character strength ?

Book Details

• Author : R.J. Palacio
• Genre : Coming of Age
• Topics : Brothers and Sisters , Friendship , Great Boy Role Models
• Character Strengths : Compassion
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication date : February 14, 2012
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
• Number of pages : 320
• Last updated : November 9, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Facing Up to It

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By Maria Russo

• April 6, 2012

Born with several genetic abnormalities, 10-year-old August Pullman, called Auggie, dreams of being “ordinary.” Inside, he knows he’s like every other kid, but even after 27 surgeries, the central character of “Wonder” bears facial disfigurations so pronounced that people who see him for the first time do “that look-away thing” — if they manage to hide their shock and horror.

“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse,” he says of his face as the book begins. He’s used to the stares and mean comments, but he’s still terrified to learn that his parents have gotten him into middle school at Beecher Prep and want him to go there rather than be home-schooled. But they persuade him to give it a try — and by the time this rich and memorable first novel by R. J. Palacio is over, it’s not just Auggie but everyone around him who has changed.

Stories about unusual children who long to fit in can be particularly wrenching. At their core lurks a kind of loneliness that stirs primal fears of abandonment and isolation. But Palacio gives Auggie a counterweight to his problems: He has the kind of warm and loving family many “normal” children lack. Among their ­— and the book’s — many strengths, the Pullmans share the, um, earthy sense of humor that all kids love. Over the years his parents, Nate and Isabel, have turned the disturbing story of Auggie’s birth into high comedy involving a flatulent nurse who fainted at the sight of him, and they persuade him to go to Beecher by riffing hilariously on the name of the school’s director, Mr. Tushman. It also helps that the Pullmans’ world — they live in a town house in “the hippie-stroller capital of upper Upper Manhattan” — is the privileged, educated upper-middle class, that hotbed of parents who hover and micromanage the lives of their perfectly fine children. It’s somehow weirdly satisfying to see what happens when something actually alarming enters this zone of needless anxiety. Palacio carves a wise and refreshing path, suggesting that while even a kid like August has to be set free to experience the struggles of life, the right type of closeness between parents and children is a transformative force for good.

But it’s Auggie and the rest of the children who are the real heart of “Wonder,” and Palacio captures the voices of girls and boys, fifth graders and teenagers, with equal skill, switching narrators every few chapters to include Auggie’s friends and his teenage sister, Via, who wrestles with her resentment, guilt and concern. “We circle around him like he’s still the baby he used to be,” she observes ruefully. And we see the vicious politics of fifth-grade popularity played out as the class bully targets Auggie and starts a campaign to shun him, culminating in an overnight school trip that turns scary and shuffles the social deck in ways no one could have imagined.

While I sobbed several times during “Wonder,” my 9-year-old daughter — who loved the book and has been pressing it on her friends — remained dry-eyed. She didn’t understand why I thought Auggie’s situation might upset her. “I like kids who are different,” she said. I realized that what makes her cry are stories in which children suffer because they have missing or neglectful parents and no one to take care of them. Perhaps Palacio’s most remarkable trick is leaving us with the impression that Auggie’s problems are surmountable in all the ways that count — that he is, in fact, in an enviable position.

By R. J. Palacio

315 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $15.99. (Middle grade; ages 8 to 12)

Maria Russo is a frequent contributor to the Book Review.

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Reviews of Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio

by R.J. Palacio

Critics' Opinion:

Readers' Opinion:

• Young Adults
• Mid-Atlantic, USA
• New York State
• Contemporary
• Parenting & Families
• Coming of Age
• Physical & Mental Differences
• Top Books of 2012

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About this Book

Book summary.

Wonder is a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next.

Winner of the BookBrowse 2012 Best Book for Younger Readers Award

I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse. August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school - until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances? R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels. Ages 8+

Ordinary I know I'm not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go. If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all. I would wish that I could walk down the street without people seeing me and then doing that look-away thing. Here's what I think: the only reason I'm not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way. But I'm kind of used to how I look by now. I know how to pretend I don't see the faces people make. We've all gotten pretty good at that sort of thing: me, Mom and Dad, Via. Actually, I take that back: Via's not so good at it. She can get really annoyed when people do something rude. Like, ...

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Media Reviews

Reader reviews, bookbrowse review.

Wonder rings its bell, and the note that reverberates in the air slips effortlessly into the reader's body. It hangs there, and the reader can't help but be changed. It is a meditation of a novel. A story that asks the reader to feel her way into kindness, empathy, and openness. And without a doubt, the reader, upon experiencing it, responds with a deep, resounding yes . Wonder is recommended for middle grade and young adult readers. It is a perfect book to open up discussions between students or book club members... continued

Full Review (602 words) This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today .

(Reviewed by Tamara Ellis Smith ).

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Beyond the Book

R.j. palacio's inspiration for wonder.

Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse. This is Auggie's statement on page one of Wonder about the appearance of his face. R.J. Palacio (whose real name is Raquel Jaramillo... Palacio is her mother's last name) makes a very conscious choice not to explore Auggie's disfigurement head-on, and I think it's a good one. Instead, she allows the reader to create her own images and then, very slowly and from a slanted sort of angle, Palacio gives details. Because at the heart of issue is, well, Auggie's heart, and that is all that matters. I don't want to dishonor Palacio's choice, but I will give you a bit of information about Auggie's condition. He has something called Mandibulofacial Dysostosis , which is more typically known as ...

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Reading Ladies

Wonder [book review].

October 27, 2017

***This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Heart, Heroes, and Humor…

You were probably an ordinary kid.

Did you ever experience a terrifying first day in a new school?

Consider Auggie. He feels ordinary inside but no one else sees him as ordinary. As he expresses:

“Kids don’t scream and run away if you’re ordinary….they don’t stare.”

This is the advice 10-year-old August Pullman receives from his parents on the first day of school:

“There are always going to be jerks in the world, Auggie,” she said, looking at me. “But I really believe, and Daddy really believes, that there are more good people on this earth than bad people, and the good people watch out for each other and take care of each other.”

Because the movie Wonde r releases in theaters on November 17, 2017, it seems timely to read or reread and review.

Movie Trailer here.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Genre/categories: Middle grade through adult contemporary fiction,  growing up, difficult discussions, family life, friendship, compassion, character traits

On the inside, ten-year-old August Pullman feels very ordinary. But as he says, ordinary kids don’t make other kids run away screaming and they don’t get stared at wherever they go. Auggie was born with a rare genetic abnormality that affected the formation of his face. Because of extensive surgeries and an attempt to protect him from cruelties of the outside world, Auggie’s parents have homeschooled him. The reader meets 5th grade Auggie as he’s being enrolled in a traditional school for the first time. Will he be accepted? Will he find friends? Will he find a hostile or friendly environment? How will adults in his life support him? The story is told from six perspectives (August, Via–his older sister, Summer–a friendly caring peer, Jack–a student leader who struggles in his role as a friend, Miranda–his sister’s best friend and a close family friend, and Justin–Miranda’s boyfriend) plus a bonus chapter from Julian’s point of view (Auggie’s nemesis).

Amazon (October) Rating: (an amazing) 4.9 Stars

My Thoughts:

If you plan to see the movie, don’t miss out on reading the book first!  It’s an easy, engaging, thoughtful, inspirational, and meaningful read with valuable discussion possibilities for the entire family. Wonder on DVD .

As we venture to school with Auggie, we feel his daily apprehension and celebrate his courage and determination. Even though he thinks of himself on the inside as an ordinary kid, we know he doesn’t look ordinary and his severe facial abnormality could cause him to be the object of unkind actions by his peers and to experience bullying.

Throughout Wonder , the narrative changes perspectives with each chapter. This helps us get a 360 degree understanding of Auggie’s world and also allows us to see the nice circle of people who care for him and support him. In addition, it allows the reader to understand that everyone battles something. Because this is written for a children’s audience, it does have a happy ending where ‘good” people are rewarded and the “bad” get their punishment. I like that there is an epilogue (extra chapter) in the current version of the book that follows Auggie’s nemesis Julian and we see how Julian changes and grows in empathy and compassion

Wonder takes a dramatic turn when Auggie overhears his friend Jack’s derogatory remarks about him; he is discouraged and devastated, and everything changes as he has to fight to rebuild what he’s lost. Through these authentic middle-grade voices, we learn about true friendship, risk, and the importance of kindness.

I especially admire Auggies’s English teacher who each month presents the idea of precepts to live by and encourages students to write their own…an example of a precept he presents is “When given the choice between being right or kind, choose kind.” In an attempt to establish the habit of writing precepts as a lifelong practice, he encourages students to email their precepts to him in the years after graduation. Auggie’s 5th-grade precept is “Everyone in the world should get a standing ovation once in their lives because we all overcometh the world.”

The following is a sampling of the types of quotes you will find from the adults in the story:

“Kinder than necessary,” he repeated. “What a marvelous line, isn’t it? Kinder than is necessary. Because it’s not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed. Why I love that line, that concept is that it reminds me that we carry with us, as human beings, not just the capacity to be kind, but the very choice of kindness. And what does that mean? How is that measured? You can’t use a yardstick. It’s like I was saying just before: it’s not like measuring how much you’ve grown in a year. It’s not exactly quantifiable, is it? How do we know we’ve been kind? What is being kind, anyway?” “….If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary–the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.” “It’s not just the nature of kindness, but the nature of one’s kindness. The power of one’s friendship. The test of one’s character. The strength of one’s courage–” 

Don’t miss out on this inspirational story filled with heart, heroes, and humor and which inspired the Kindness Movement . I expect that Wonder will become a beloved classic in upper-grade classrooms and in family libraries. Highly recommended for every reader who believes in the power of teaching through a story and for every family who is in the process of building empathy, compassion, and kindness. Wonder would make a great parent/child buddy read. I believe good literature and timeless themes can be enjoyed by all ages!

“Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, propel us, on occasion, to greatness.”

My rating: 4.5 stars (rounded to 5)

Wonder Information Here.

There is an additional book, Auggie & Me . It’s not a sequel, rather a companion read and an extension of Auggie’s world with three additional points of view.

More Information about Auggie & Me Here.

The Kindness Movement and Sign the Pledge Here.

The author interviews kids about kindness here.

Wonder Movie Trailer here.

Wonder on DVD .

Meet the Author, R. J. Palacio

R. J. Palacio was born and raised in New York City. She attended the High School of Art and Design and the Parsons School of Design, where she majored in illustration with the hopes of someday following in the footsteps of her favorite childhood author-illustrators, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Maurice Sendak, and the D’Aulaires. She was a graphic designer and art director for many years before writing Wonder. We’re All Wonders, which is based conceptually on the themes of her novel, represents the fulfillment of her dream to write and illustrate her own picture book. R.J. is also the author of Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories and 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts. She lives in Brooklyn, where she is surrounded by magical water towers, with her husband, their two sons, and their two dogs, Bear and Beau. Learn more about her at rjpalacio.com or on Twitter at @RJPalacio.

I’m curious if you’ve read Wonder !

Do you have children that have read it? I’d love to hear your (or their) reflection.

Do you plan to see the movie ?

How do you feel about teaching character traits such as empathy and kindness through literature?

What are you reading this week?

Happy Reading Bookworms!

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke

“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.” ~Denise J Hughes

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.” ~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.” ~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text

In my last post, I indicated that I would read and review If the Creek Don’t Rise . I did read it; however, I decided that Wonder would be the primary focus of my review this week so that I can encourage you to read it before the movie releases. Here’s my brief review of If the Creek Don’t Rise .

 If The Creek Don’t Rise by Leah Weiss

Genre/categories: Historical Fiction, Small Town, Rural, Appalachia, Hillbilly Culture

Young Sadie Blue lives in the North Carolina mountain town of Baines Creek and suffers abuse at the hands of her drunken husband, Roy Tupkin. When a new teacher comes to town, Sadie begins to think of finding her voice and of a life that doesn’t include Roy.

Amazon Rating: 4.5 Stars

Harsh and hard realities of life in this remote Appalachian community make If the Creek Don’t Rise a gritty and sobering read. Young Sadie Blue is pregnant, abused, mistreated, and struggling to find her voice. Only a few chapters are from Sadie’s POV. The story is told from multiple viewpoints giving readers a good perspective of her life and the hillbilly community. Some characters offer hope and healing while others are despicable. Sadie does find her voice in a way that surprised me (but maybe it shouldn’t have given her situation and the hillbilly culture). As a teacher, I hoped to learn more about the new teacher’s contribution to the youth of the community….I’m always looking for hope and redemption in a story….but after the teacher’s strong introduction, she fades into the background of the story. This is also disappointing because she is important to Sadie. Overall, I enjoyed the read and the excellent writing; however, it’s not a read that everyone would enjoy. It’s gritty and a bit dark but certainly an impressive debut novel. I would encourage you to read additional reviews.

My Rating: 4 Stars

If the Creek Don’t Rise Information Here.

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17 comments.

[…] Review Here. […]

[…] My Full Review Here […]

[…] I’ve heard enthusiastic reviews! It’s on my weekend “must do” list. See my book summary and review here. Movie trailer […]

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[…] Full Review and Amazon Information Here. […]

[…] Full Review Here Amazon Information Here Movie Trailer Here […]

[…] Wonder by R.J. Palacio Genre: Fiction (Categories: physical differences, kindness, compassion, acceptance) My Rating: 5 Stars Wonder has been positively reviewed by parents, teachers, and children,  it inspired the national “Choose Kind” campaign, and many of you have seen the movie. However, if you haven’t read the book, I think it’s a must read experience for everyone! This easy to read, engaging, and thought-provoking read paves the way for grand discussions and builds compassion and empathy…..I believe that the best teaching occurs within the context of a story. My full review here. […]

[…] Wonder falls into the category of “A Must Read For Everyone.” The themes of kindness, compassion, and acceptance are universal. (review) […]

[…] Auggie and Jack in Wonder by R.J. Palacio (my review) […]

[…] Mercy), Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud (Refugee), Billie Jo (Out of the Dust), Louis (Unbroken), Augie (Wonder), Rahima (The Pearl That Broke Its Shell), Ada (The War That Saved My Life, The War I Finally Won), […]

[…] Wonder falls into the category of “A Must Read For Everyone.” The themes of kindness, compassion, and acceptance are universal. (my review) […]

[…] Wonder by R.J. Palacio […]

[…] Continue reading my review of Wonder to see what I loved…. […]

[…] by Starlight by Sharon Draper (racism, prejudice), Refugee (12+) by Alan Gratz (refugee crisis), Wonder by R.J. Palacio (physical differences), Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (scroll down page for review) […]

[…] Wonder by R.J. Palacio (compassion, acceptance, kindness) My review of Wonder here. […]

[…] Wonder, R.J. […]

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Awards & Accolades

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New York Times Bestseller

by R.J. Palacio ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2012

A memorable story of kindness, courage and wonder.

After being home-schooled for years, Auggie Pullman is about to start fifth grade, but he’s worried: How will he fit into middle school life when he looks so different from everyone else?

Auggie has had 27 surgeries to correct facial anomalies he was born with, but he still has a face that has earned him such cruel nicknames as Freak, Freddy Krueger, Gross-out and Lizard face. Though “his features look like they’ve been melted, like the drippings on a candle” and he’s used to people averting their eyes when they see him, he’s an engaging boy who feels pretty ordinary inside. He’s smart, funny, kind and brave, but his father says that having Auggie attend Beecher Prep would be like sending “a lamb to the slaughter.” Palacio divides the novel into eight parts, interspersing Auggie’s first-person narrative with the voices of family members and classmates, wisely expanding the story beyond Auggie’s viewpoint and demonstrating that Auggie’s arrival at school doesn’t test only him, it affects everyone in the community. Auggie may be finding his place in the world, but that world must find a way to make room for him, too.

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-375-86902-0

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

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BOOK REVIEW

by R.J. Palacio

by R.J. Palacio ; illustrated by R.J. Palacio with K Czap

by R.J. Palacio ; illustrated by R.J. Palacio

More About This Book

CHARLOTTE'S WEB

by E.B. White illustrated by Garth Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1952

The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...

A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.

Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952

ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

More by E.B. White

by E.B. White & illustrated by Maggie Kneen

by E.B. White illustrated by Fred Marcellino

by E.B. White illustrated by Garth Williams

PERSPECTIVES

SEEN & HEARD

by Louis Sachar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...

Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar ( Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger , 1995, etc.).

Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5

Page Count: 233

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER

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by Louis Sachar ; illustrated by Tim Heitz

by Louis Sachar

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Wonder by RJ Palacio – review

‘You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and when you turn the last page over, you’ll want to read it again!’

This is a book I would happily read again and again and again. I loved it; it’s definitely up there with my favourite books of all time. Where to begin…?

This moving, gripping, fast-paced, sad, happy, hilarious (I could go on for hours) book follows the story of August Pullman, an average ten year old boy with a birth defect. Auggie has never been to a real school before until he decides to join fifth grade, the first year of middle school.

Through this exhilarating story, you learn Auggie’s triumphs, downs and much more of his tough journey through middle school, trying to make it out of fifth grade alive! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and when you turn the last page over, you’ll want to read it again!

This book is so moving and sad, and I think one of the reasons it has such a magical effect on the reader is because it is told from a range of characters. First Auggie, then Via his sister, then Jack and many more people. This was the first book I have ever cried during.

Even if you don’t normally cry in books, I guarantee you will in this one! This will leave you wanting more…

• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop

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Wonder by R. J. Palacio: Book Review By Jess Lahey and Her Son, Ben

Wonder is a transformative book. Our reviewers, Jess Lahey, author of the forthcoming The Gift of Failure and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and The Atlantic , and her son, Ben, a sophomore at St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont, tell us why it is a must read.

Previous review: Book Review For Teens: John Green Looking for Alaska

TEEN REVIEW | Ben Lahey

August Pullman, the main character of Wonder by R. J. Palacio, is only 10 years old, but his story engages readers of any age. August was born with a severe facial deformity that leaves him unable to attend school, until the fifth grade, when his family decides it’s time for him to try to give up homeschooling .

Wonder tells the story of August’s first year of school through his own eyes, as well as the eyes of four other characters. The narrators range from fifth graders to high schoolers, with different points of view that flesh out not only their individual personalities, but also how August touches the lives of those around him. Even though the story is told from different perspectives, it’s never confusing; August always remains the book’s focus and is never overshadowed by their insights and observations.

Palacio uses few details to describe August’s deformity, but those that he does use are shocking. With only our imagination to complete the picture, we are left with a shocking image in our minds. August himself says, “I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”

The characters don’t deal with August’s deformity easily. Even months after first meeting him, August’s classmates are still not used to his face. The class becomes split between August’s friends and the kids who still bully him. Every character is written convincingly, and the sides they take earn either our empathy or judgment.

And Palacio doesn’t shy away from showing how parent-teacher politics play into this “war,” as August calls it. It’s easy to hate the parents and their kids who are so uncomfortable with August that they want him removed from the school. It’s equally as easy to love those kids who befriend August.

Wonder’s  emotional moments work because the reader is so fully attached to the characters. Palacio makes every moment of August’s life seem real. Even the hardships that most of us will never have to face. 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.

ADULT REVIEW | Jess Lahey

Despite his first-sentence assertion, “I know I’m not an ordinary 10-year-old kid,” August Pullman is just that. He’s a gloriously, spectacularly, and reassuringly ordinary 10-year-old kid. Sure, this central character in the coming-of-age novel, Wonder  by R. J. Palacio, may not look like most kids his age, but he sure sounds a lot like them. And this is the genius of Palacio’s storytelling.

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. 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. The story is rightly his to tell, from his unique perspective, in his distinctive voice.

How wrong I was.

Tweens and adolescents tend to believe that they are the sole arbiters of the truth. Palacio demonstrates this by using five characters—August, Jack, Summer, Via, and Justin—to narrate their own version of August Pullman’s fifth grade year.

While Wonder  is August’s story, Via, August’s sister points out that his gravitational pull influences everyone. “August is the Sun. Me and Mom and Dad are planets orbiting the Sun. The rest of our family and friends are asteroids and comets floating around the planets orbiting the Sun.”  August may be at the center of this book’s universe, but he’s certainly not alone. As I progressed through the orbiting accounts of August’s year, I began to understand that Palacio’s use of multiple perspectives does not separate the experiences of these children. It unites them.

To paraphrase Beecher Prep Middle School Director, Mr. Tushman, the attraction of August’s heart, and the people he carries up and holds in orbit around it, are the stars of this story. When the story came to an end, and I fully appreciated what had, at first glance, been invisible to me. I was happy to have been drawn in to Palacio’s expansive vision.

Order My Copy Now!

Wonder, by R.J. Palacio | Book Review

Book Review of Wonder The Children’s Book Review

Written by R.J. Palacio

Ages 10+ | 320 Pages

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers | ISBN-13: 978037586902

What to Expect: Disabilities, Self-Esteem, and Kindness

Kindness is an outstanding trait we all possess, so long as we choose to access it. It is an essential aspect of being human.

In the captivating, award-winning New York Times bestselling novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio, the theme of exhibiting kindness is explored in an inspiring way. The story revolves around a 10-year-old boy named August Pullman living with rare facial deformities. Auggie, as he is affectionately called, yearns to be accepted for who he is and not judged based on his looks. Due to having had 27 surgeries, both big and small, and lots of illness, August (Auggie), up until now, has been home-schooled.

Through Palacio’s vivid writing, readers journey through Auggie’s first year in school and see through the eyes of fifth-grade classmates and his sister, guiding us through valuable insights into the process of accepting someone different from us. Wonder is a heartwarming tale of bravery, love, and kindness. It is a call to action for us to strive towards our best selves and to choose kindness in every situation. This powerful and inspiring book has been a global phenomenon, with Auggie’s story inspiring a growing movement of compassion and empathy toward others.

Reading Wonder will undoubtedly help you embrace its message and become a part of this growing movement.

Buy the Book

About the author.

R. J. Palacio was born and raised in New York City. She attended the High School of Art and Design and the Parsons School of Design, where she majored in illustration with the hopes of someday following in the footsteps of her favorite childhood author-illustrators, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Maurice Sendak , and the D’Aulaires . She was a graphic designer and art director for many years before writing Wonder .

We’re All Wonders , which is based conceptually on the themes of her novel, represents the fulfillment of her dream to write and illustrate her own picture book. R.J. is also the author of Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories and 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts . She lives in Brooklyn, where she is surrounded by magical water towers, with her husband, their two sons, and their two dogs, Bear and Beau.

Learn more about her at https://wonderthebook.com/about or on Twitter at @RJPalacio .

What to Read Next if You Love Wonder

• Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories, by R. J. Palacio
• 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts, R. J. Palacio
• Out of My Mind , by Sharon Draper

Bianca Schulze reviewed  Wonder . Discover more books like Wonder by reading our reviews and articles tagged with disabilities , self-esteem , kindness , and family .

• X (Twitter)

Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

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Book Review

• R.J. Palacio
• Coming-of-Age , Contemporary , Drama

Readability Age Range

• Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House Inc.
• School Library Journal, Top 100 Children's Novels, 2012; Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth, 2012

Year Published

Wonder by R.J. Palacio has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

Like hundreds of other students in Manhattan, August Pullman is starting fifth grade. But August is no ordinary 10-year-old. He’s had 27 surgeries since birth, all on his face. August was born with a severe craniofacial abnormality. Despite his many surgeries, he doesn’t — and will never — look normal. Children (and sometimes adults) who catch a glimpse of his face either stare or turn away quickly in shock and horror. This year will be August’s first at a mainstream school. His mom thinks the experience will be good for him, but his dad disagrees. He says that sending August to school is like leading a lamb to the slaughter. August isn’t sure what that means.

Before school begins, August’s mom takes him to his new school, Beecher Prep, to meet the principal and get a tour from three of his new classmates — Jack, Julian and Charlotte. Jack and Charlotte are nice, but Julian asks August if he was burned in a fire. When school begins, Jack sits beside August in every class, and the two boys quickly become good friends. August also makes friends with a girl named Summer, the only student in the whole school brave enough to sit with him at lunch. And while only Julian is deliberately mean, August still has to cope with hundreds of secret stares and watch his peers elbow each other and whisper about him from behind cupped hands.

When August has a birthday party, he invites everyone in his class, but only six of them come. He also learns that nobody wants to touch him, and if someone does accidentally brush up against him, they run away quickly to wash their hands. Even the parents get involved — Julian’s mom photoshops August out of the class photo and distributes copies to other parents.

Fortunately, one of August’s favorite holidays, Halloween, is approaching. He plans to dress up like a Star Wars character, but at the last minute, he changes his mind and wears another costume instead — the Bleeding Scream. When he arrives at school, no one knows it’s him under his mask, and he overhears Jack telling Julian that he only hangs out with August because the principal asked him to, and that if he looked like August, he would kill himself. August feels nauseous after hearing this and goes home sick. He tells Summer and his sister, Via, what happened but swears them to secrecy and refuses to talk to Jack for more than a month.

Meanwhile, Via is having troubles of her own. Via has always felt defined by August, and she was looking forward to attending a new high school where people would call her by her real name, Olivia, and where no one knew her family — except for her two best friends, Miranda and Ella. But on the first day of school, Via realizes that her “friends” have created a new image for themselves over the summer — one that doesn’t include her. They ditch Via as soon as possible to pursue their quest for high school popularity. Because Miranda has always acted like a big sister to August, this creates tension between Via and August, especially when Miranda calls August to say hello but refuses to hang out with Via at school.

When Via learns about what Jack said about August, she consoles August and talks him into trick-or-treating with her.

Summer is also paying the price for being August’s friend. One of the popular girls invites Summer to a Halloween party — but when she arrives, everyone wants to quiz her about why she hangs out with August. They tell her that if she didn’t hang out with him, she would be popular, too — and Julian might even ask her to be his girlfriend. Summer leaves the party early but stays friends with August. When Jack asks her why August won’t talk to him, she gives him a hint: “Bleeding Scream.”

It’s true that the principal asked Jack to befriend August at the beginning of the school year. At first, he was reluctant to agree. But after getting to know August personally, Jack realizes that August is the best friend he would have chosen for himself anyway. So when August stops hanging out with him, he wonders why. Although Jack enjoys his increased popularity, he doesn’t really like Julian and his crowd. He doesn’t fit in because their families are much wealthier than his, and his grades drop without August there to help him. In science class, the teacher assigns a project for the upcoming science fair, and Jack imagines his face screaming on the inside. Suddenly, he remembers Summer’s hint (Bleeding Scream) and realizes that August is mad at him because of what he said on Halloween. After class, Julian calls August a freak. Jack punches Julian in the mouth and knocks out a tooth.

Since there are just a few days before the Christmas holidays, Jack is suspended until January. A flurry of emails are sent, and Julian’s parents express their concern that perhaps August shouldn’t have been admitted to Beecher Prep and that it was too much pressure to expect Jack and Julian to befriend August back in September. Mr. Tushman, the principal, and Jack’s parents disagree with Julian’s parents. Jack re-friends August on Facebook, and he apologizes for what he said on Halloween. After asking if Jack really punched Julian, August accepts his apology, and the two boys become better friends than ever.

In January, Charlotte tells Jack that the entire fifth-grade male population is at war. It’s Jack and August versus Julian and his two sidekicks, Miles and Henry. Most of the boys are on Julian’s side, but there are a handful of neutral boys. Jack learns for the first time what it’s like for people to treat him as if he doesn’t exist. Julian puts mean notes in Jack’s and August’s lockers, and they respond by putting fake love notes in his locker.

At August’s house working on their science project, Jack and August meet Via’s new boyfriend, Justin. They think his fiddle case looks like it might hold a machine gun, and they think it’s funny that he plays in a Louisiana-style band when he’s from Brooklyn. On his way home, Justin sees Julian and his friends making fun of Jack. Jack tells Justin about the war. After Jack leaves, Justin holds his fiddle case menacingly and tells Julian not to mess with Jack or he and his friends will be sorry.

The tricks Julian plays on Jack become meaner, and fifth-graders start becoming tired of the war. Even Amos, one of Julian’s friends, stops Julian from emptying his pencil shavings into Jack’s backpack. When Julian spreads a rumor that Jack has hired a hit man to get him, people start laughing at Julian behind his back. By springtime, only Miles and Henry are on Julian’s side, and more of his classmates are being nice to Jack and August. They don’t even tease August about the hearing aids he has started to wear.

But at home, Via and August are fighting because Via didn’t want to tell August about the school play Justin and Miranda are starring in. (Via is Miranda’s understudy.) When August finds out, Via wants to invite him, but her parents are trying to respect her feelings by not inviting him. Then their dog, Daisy, must be euthanized because she is old and sick. A few days later, Via brings home three tickets to the play, and nothing more is said.

When Miranda sees that Via’s family is in attendance at the play, she pretends to be ill so Via can play her role instead. Miranda’s parents aren’t there to see her — they divorced the summer before Miranda started high school. When she went away to camp that summer, she pretended that August was her little brother instead of Via’s. The lie made her popular, and she began hanging out with the cool crowd who smoked and sneaked through the woods at night to hang out with boys. When Miranda got back home, she felt embarrassed about her lie and didn’t want Via to find out, so she started hanging out with Ella instead. After the play, Miranda sees August get lost in the crowd, and she brings him back to his parents. She and Via make up and become friends again.

At the end of the year, the entire fifth grade goes on a three-day nature retreat. At first, August is nervous about being away from home overnight, but when he learns that Julian opted out of the trip because he thought it was dorky, August is overjoyed. He has the time of his life until the second night of the trip, when the fifth-grade students watch an outdoor movie on the fairgrounds with students from several other schools. Midway through The Sound of Music, Jack and August have to use the restroom. Instead of waiting in the long lineup for the toilets, they go quietly in the woods, as do Amos, Miles and Henry.

On their way back to the movie, they run into a group of seventh-grade students from another school, who immediately start making fun of August. They push Jack to the ground and yank August’s hoodie so he falls flat on his back. Amos, Miles and Henry stand up for Jack and August, pushing the seventh-graders out of the way so Jack and August can escape into the cornfields that surround the fairgrounds. August’s sweatshirt is torn and his elbow is bleeding. When he realizes that his hearing aids are gone, August can’t help but cry. But instead of making fun of him, the other boys pat him on the back and Amos lets him cry on his shoulder. August finally realizes what his dad meant when he talked about leading a lamb to the slaughter.

The boys walk back to camp together surrounding August like a guard, and news of their encounter spreads quickly among the fifth-graders. Suddenly everyone is concerned about August, even students he didn’t know well. When the fifth-graders return home, August tells his mom about his misadventures. Then his dad and Via arrive home together, carrying a big, white box and tell August to open it. Inside is a little, black puppy looking up at him.

When August returns to school, the war is over. Because Julian missed the nature retreat, he is no longer as popular as before, and Miles and Henry become Amos’ best friends, instead of Julian’s. No one ignores August or Jack anymore, and August gets used to knuckle-punching jocks in the hallway and being called “little dude” by students he barely knows.

At the end-of-year graduation ceremony, August wins an award for being an exemplary student, not just academically but personally as well. Everyone cheers for him, and August finally feels like an ordinary kid — even though he knows no one else sees him that way. At the reception, his picture is taken with his friends and classmates, and nobody minds who is touching whom. When they walk home for cake and ice cream, August thanks his mom for making him go to school. She thanks him for being him — and tells him that he is a wonder.

Christian Beliefs

August reads Christian authors, namely Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . Excerpts of both appear in the book. Jack’s baby sitter, after seeing August, tells Jack to thank the Lord for his blessings. As part of his graduation speech, Mr. Tushman tells the fifth-grade students that if they are kinder than necessary, people will see in them the face of God — then broadens his statement to include any representation of divine goodness. August believes that his grandmother is in heaven.

Other Belief Systems

Summer believes in reincarnation. Miranda tells Justin that the universe wasn’t kind to August, but Justin believes that the universe takes care of its most fragile creatures. The fifth-graders do a project on ancient Egypt, which includes several of the Egyptian gods. August’s father is Jewish. Two students play Dungeons & Dragons at recess.

Authority Roles

Though August’s parents may argue about whether August is ready to attend school or if Via is old enough to ride the subway alone, they are ultimately united by their love for their children and their desire to see them develop as courageous and compassionate human beings. They share special nicknames and bedtime rituals, and while they remain closely involved in their children’s lives — attending school functions, listening carefully to their children talk about their days and working through problems and challenges together — they also encourage August and Via to spread their wings. August claims the bulk of his parents’ time, but when Via is upset, August’s mom drops everything to make her feel better. Before her grandmother’s death, Via also enjoys a special relationship with her grandmother.

The principal and teachers at Beecher Prep are kind and respectful to August and encourage their students to behave likewise, even calling students out on more subtle forms of social bullying, although they can’t catch everything. This positive school atmosphere is fostered by Mr. Tushman, the principal, who defends his choice to admit August when challenged by Julian’s parents. While firm, he is also fair, and he encourages the development of good character in all of his charges.

Profanity & Violence

Rough language and euphemisms include geez, heck, freak and shut up . There are also several misuses of God’s name.

At one point, Jack says he’d rather kill himself than look like Auggie, and Julian consistently puts down Auggie for his looks. He compares Auggie to a burn victim and leaves notes that tell Auggie how much people hate him. All of Julian’s notes are mean, and Julian is a bully to Jack and to Auggie. At one point, he gets the whole class to keep from touching Auggie in any way and later all the boys in the class to stay away from Jack.

August and Jack have a brief scuffle with several seventh-grade students before Amos, Henry and Miles come to their rescue. August’s sweatshirt is torn and bloodied, and he requires mild first-aid treatment.

Sexual Content

Jack tells August (on separate occasions) that Via and Summer are hot. Students as young as fifth grade are in dating relationships — although Summer’s mom thinks they’re too young to date. Via characterizes her and her friends’ physical development as not huge or flat. She has decided not to have children because they will carry the same gene that caused August’s abnormality. Miranda wears a tube top and sneaks through the woods at night to meet boys. Her parents divorced because her father was unfaithful.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Lying: Characters tell lies to get themselves out of sticky situations. August lets Jack copy his homework and then tells the teacher that they did it together. Via takes the subway without permission instead of getting a ride home with Miranda, then tells her mother she was late because she and Miranda stopped for pizza.

Smoking: At camp, Miranda smokes cigarettes.

Internet Use: Although they’re both under the minimum age of 13, Jack and August have Facebook accounts.

Crude Humor: Mr. Tushman’s name inspires several family jokes including several jocular remembrances of one of August’s parents’ old college professors, Miss Butt.

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'Wonder' Book Review

R.J. Palacio's Novel of Bullying and Acceptance

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"Wonder," R.J. Palacio's debut novel, was written for children 8 to 12 years old, but its message defies genres . Published in 2012, its anti-bullying, pro-acceptance message will resonate with teenagers and even adults as well.

Some books are action-packed, compelling the reader to turn the page to find out what happens next. Other books are compelling because they invite readers to engage with characters who are real, who come alive off the page, and who pull the reader into their story. "Wonder" is the latter kind of book. In fact, very little "action" happens within its pages, and yet readers will find themselves deeply affected by the story.

August Pullman (Auggie to his friends) is not an ordinary 10-year-old boy. He feels like one and has the interests of one, but his face is not ordinary at all. In fact, it's the type of face that scares kids and makes people stare. Auggie is pretty good natured about it all. This is the way he is, after all, and while he doesn’t like that people stare, there’s not much he can do about it.

Because his face has required many reconstructive surgeries, Auggie has been homeschooled . But there are no more surgeries to be done for a while, and now August’s parents think it’s time that he goes to mainstream school, beginning with fifth grade in the fall. The idea of this terrifies Auggie; he knows how people react to seeing him, and he wonders if he will be able to fit in at school at all.

He bravely gives it a go, but finds that it’s much like he expected. Many of the children laugh at him behind his back, and someone has started a game called the Plague, in which people “catch” a “disease” if they touch Auggie. One boy, Julian, leads the bullying attacks. He’s the sort of kid whom adults find charming, but in reality, he is quite mean to anyone not in his circle of friends.

Auggie does make two close friends: Summer, a girl who actually likes Auggie for who he is, and Jack. Jack started out as Auggie’s “assigned” friend, and when Auggie finds this out, he and Jack have a falling out. However, they patch things up at Christmas, after Jack gets suspended for hitting Julian for badmouthing Auggie.

This leads to a “war," with the popular boys against Auggie and Jack. While nothing more than mean words, in the form of notes in the lockers, fly between the two camps, the tension between them lasts until the spring. Then there's a confrontation between a group of older boys from a different school and Auggie and Jack at a sleep-away camp. They are hopelessly outnumbered until a group of boys who were formerly against Auggie and Jack help defend them from the bullies.

In the end, Auggie has a successful year at school, and even makes the Honor Roll. In addition, the school gives him an award for courage, which he doesn't understand, musing, “If they want to give me a medal for being me, I’ll take it.” (p. 306) He sees himself as ordinary, and in the face of everything else, he really is just that: an ordinary kid.

It‘s the straightforward, non-sentimental manner in which Palacio approaches her topic that makes this such an excellent book. Auggie might have an extraordinary face, but he's a regular kid, and that makes him relatable, in spite of his challenges. Palacio also shifts her point of view, telling the story through the eyes of characters other than Auggie. This allows the reader to get to know characters like Auggie's sister, Via, who talks about the way her brother takes over the family’s life. However, some of the other viewpoints—especially of Via’s friends—feel somewhat unnecessary and bog down the middle of the book.

The power of the book likes in how Palacio creates such a normal, relatable character from a boy living with such an extraordinary physical affliction. Even though "Wonder" is recommended for children ages 8 through 12, the book's themes of identity, bullying, and acceptance make it interesting reading for a wide audience as well.

About R.J. Palacio

An art director by profession, R. J. Palacio first thought of the idea for "Wonder" when she and her children were on vacation. While there, they saw a young girl who had a condition similar to Auggie’s. Her children reacted badly, which got Palacio thinking about the girl and what she goes through on a daily basis. Palacio also thought about how she could have better taught her children to respond to situations like this.

The book inspired Random House to start an anti-bullying campaign, called Choose Kind , with a site where people can share their experiences and sign a pledge to stamp out bullying. There you can also download an excellent Educator Guide for Wonder to use at home, or with a community grouop.

Companion Book

"Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories ," also by R. J. Palacio, is a 320-page collection of three stories, each told from the point of view of one of three characters from "Wonder": the bully Julian, Auggie’s oldest friend, Christopher, and his new friend, Charlotte. The stories take place prior to Auggie’s attending school and during his first year there.

This book is neither a prequel nor a sequel to "Wonder"—in fact, Palacio has made it clear that she does not plan to ever write either. Instead, this book is meant as a companion for those who have already read "Wonder" and want to extend the experience by learning more about Auggie's impact on the people around him.

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By R. J. Palacio

Homeschooled Auggie begins middle school at Beecher Prep and faces bullying and discrimination by his classmates because of his looks.

Article written by Ebuka Igbokwe

Bachelor's degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

R. J. Palacio’s ‘ Wonder ’ tells the story of August ‘Auggie’ Pullman, a boy with a craniofacial deformity that kept him from school, getting to attend school for the first time. It deals with issues such as kindness, empathy, self-acceptance, and discrimination against people with disabilities.

Spoiler-Free Summary

August ‘Auggie’ Pullman is a ten-year-old boy born with a congenital disability that caused an abnormal development of his facial features. This has caused him to undergo several surgeries to correct his disability, but he still looks noticeably different from other children his age. Until the events of ‘ Wonder ,’ Auggie had been homeschooled, but his parents decided to start him in Beecher Prep Middle School, and he has to come to terms with a new school life.

Full Summary of Wonder

Warning – This article contains important details and spoilers

‘ Wonder ’ is told from the first-person perspective of several of the book’s characters . It is divided into eight parts, each named after the character from whose viewpoint the section is narrated.

Part One: August

The story opens with the protagonist, August, introducing himself as an ordinary ten-year-old kid others see as extraordinary. He is starting school for the first time and is scared at the prospect. He had never gone to school before and had been homeschooled because he had been in and out of hospitals to get reconstructive surgeries done on his face. He has Treacher-Collins Syndrome, which affected the development of his facial features. His appearance sets people off, which is one reason he is apprehensive about starting school, as he worries his schoolmates will discriminate against him because of his looks.

His parents and Mr. Tushman, the school principal, organized a visit before school started to give August a feel for his new school. Three of his would-be classmates—Jack Will, Charlotte, and Julian—take August on a school tour.

He is jittery on the first day at school but soon settles in. The new classmates avoid sitting close to him, but Jack Will takes the initiative and sits beside him. They introduce themselves, and Julian makes subtle mean remarks about his face in a way that the teacher does not notice, and it is evident to August that he is deliberately unpleasant. In English class, their teacher invites them to think about precepts, which are fundamental general rules about life, and note a precept every month. The first precept is about kindness.

At lunch, everyone avoids his table except a girl named Summer, and they become friends. However, for the rest of September, he has difficulty adjusting to the stares he is getting from his schoolmates and how they are avoiding him. Julian is particularly mean to Auggie and often taunts him. However, Auggie is happy about his friendships with Jack, Will, and Summer.

Wearing a costume on Halloween, he overhears Jack Will telling Julian and a group of boys that he was friends with August only because Mr. Tushman asked him. This hurts August deeply, and he calls in sick at the school clinic, and his mother comes to take him home. He does not return to school for the rest of the week.

Part Two: Via

The story switches to Via’s point of view, and she narrates how August’s special conditions make everyone in their home revolve around him to attend to his needs. Still, she believes the situation is changing slightly.

Via describes August’s deformity and the difficulties they cause him and the family. Because of his health, he needs much attention from his parents and Via. Because of this, her parents often ignore Via, but she understands and tries not to make an issue out of it.

As August is beginning middle school, Via is starting at a new high school, and she is glad at the opportunity to create a new life as Olivia and not Via, Auggie’s brother. She meets Ella and Miranda, her close friends from middle school who had also known Auggie, and thinks they have become cool towards her. She decides to separate herself from her old friends.

While Via is going through her changes at school, she is somewhat miffed that her mother, occupied with Auggie’s problems, has no time for her, but she holds her peace as she is wont to. Meanwhile, Miranda and Ella make new friends in school, and Via goes on to make her own friends.

Via notices that Auggie does not go trick-or-treating that Halloween, and when she prods him, he tells her about Jack Will’s betrayal. Via sympathizes with him but assures him that he cannot feign sickness forever and will have to return to school sometime. She convinces August to return to school but ignores Jack Will.

Part Three: Summer

This part features the narrative picked up from Summer’s viewpoint. Her classmates wonder why she is friends with August, who they think of as a freak. Summer believes she initially approaches him out of pity but likes him. She is angry at her classmates for avoiding August.

She is invited to a Halloween party by the popular kids. Savanna, the host, suggests that Julian wants to be friends with her, and the cool kids would like her to join their group, but on the condition that she stop hanging out with August, who they call Zombie Kid. Summer is offended by this suggestion and makes an excuse to leave the party early.

Summer approaches August at school to discuss working with him on a class project, but she finds August withdrawn and rude. August wonders aloud whether she is his friend because Principal Tushman asked her, just like he requested Jack Will. August’s accusation offends Summer, and he apologizes for suspecting her motives. He then reveals to her what Jack Will said on Halloween.

Summer and August collaborate on their class project and get to know each other better. At the presentation of the projects at school, Jack meets Summer and asks her why August no longer speaks with him. Because August swore her to secrecy, she cannot tell him directly, so she gives him a hint.

Part Four: Jack

When the story switches to Jack, we return to the events before August begins school at Beecher Prep.

Jack Will’s mother receives a call from Principal Tushman asking that Jack Will be part of a student welcoming committee for a deformed new student, and Jack Will initially refuses. He has seen August before and wants to avoid him. He finally changes his mind and agrees because he feels sympathetic to August and knows how mean people can be, so he decides to be kind to him instead.

He finds August exciting and fun, and they become genuine friends. So, when August suddenly stops talking to him, he is surprised.

He initially does not understand Summer’s hint and thinks she is toying with him. The class is assigned a science fair project, and Jack Will wishes he was still friends with August, who is very good at science. He suddenly understands Summer’s clue and realizes that August overheard him talking badly about him to Julian and his friends.

At the moment of realization, Jack is abjectly sorry he said such mean things about August and feels terrible about his actions. At the same time, the science teacher, Ms. Rubin, groups the class into pairs for the project and couples Jack Will and August. Julian approaches and asks Jack Will to dump August, whom he calls ‘freak’, and become partners with him instead. This makes Jack Will so furious that he punches Julian.

Jack Will gets detention and is threatened with expulsion. He only gets suspended and has to write Julian an apology. Jack Will also writes August, asking for forgiveness, and they mend their friendship in an exchange of emails.

However, back at school, Jack Will finds he has become a pariah. Former friends will not talk to him. He discovers from Charlotte that Julian has turned the whole class against him for befriending August. They would not even sit with him at the lunch table. Sides are drawn, and only a few classmates take August’s side, while some are neutral, and others side with Julian.

Part Five: Justin

Justin describes meeting Auggie and Jack Will and hiding his shock at Auggie’s appearance. They are interested in him and his musical instrument, a zydeco. When he is alone with Via, she asks him whether he is freaked out, and he denies it. Eventually, he meets Via’s parents and is warmed by their interest in him and his music, an attention different from what he gets from his divorced parents. They return to the Pullman’s and find the family dog, Daisy, is very sick.

Justin and Via are preparing for a school play. Justin and Miranda have the lead roles, and Via is only an understudy for Miranda. Via helps Justin prepare for his role at her home. On his way home, he notices Julian and his friends being mean to Jack Will and scares them off.

Part Six: August

August and Jack still face discrimination in school, and they receive mean notes in their lockers from Julian’s group. However, the antagonism they receive is gradually reducing, and his classmates have started becoming friendly with him. August gets a hearing aid that improves his hearing.

When August’s mother finds out about Via’s school play, which she had kept secret, she is angry. August believes Via is trying to keep him a secret from her new school life, and they have a row over this. Via reprimands August for trying to make everything about him. That day, Daisy becomes so sick that she has to be euthanized, and the family reconciles over the tragedy.

Via brings tickets to the play, and August and his parents attend, hoping to see Miranda and Justin. However, Miranda called in sick at the last moment, and Justin and Via played the lead roles. Miranda meets August, and they are happy to see each other again.

Part Seven: Miranda

Miranda takes up the story from her days at camp before high school. Following her parent’s divorce, her father moves in with another woman, and her mother becomes distant. When she goes away to camp, she hates it but passes her time by making things up to tell her campmates, including having a deformed brother.

When she returns to school, she is disappointed that Via never asks her about her parents’ divorce, and she grows closer to Ella and separates from Via.

Through the beginning of high school, she notices Via and her new boyfriend, Justin. Miranda even signs up for a play because she sees Via is participating, and she gets a lead role with Justin.

She misses the Pullmans because she had always found them a welcoming and loving family, and she pays a visit, meeting August.

She gives up acting in the play because she has no family to watch her and feels Via deserves to play the lead. After the show, Miranda meets up with the Pullmans and Justin, and they invite her to have dinner with them.

Part Eight: August

Beecher Prep fifth graders go for an annual camping event for three days, and August is excited but a little awed because he’s never been to camp or even a sleepover. They had many fun activities in the camp. They are watching an outdoor movie one night, and Jack feels pressed, and August escorts him to the toilet. They meet a long line, and Jack relieves himself in the woods. On their return, they meet a group of middle schoolers from another school who make fun of August. Jack and August defend themselves, and other Beecher Prep boys join in and rescue August. Even though he loses his hearing aid in the melee, August wins the respect of his classmates when they hear how he handled himself in the fight. His mother comes to take him home early.

The story of the fight is embellished and spread across the school. The incident’s aftermath is that he is accepted by his classmates and other Beecher Prep schoolmates. Everyone in his class, except Julian, starts to treat him better.

August receives the Henry Beecher Award for being a notable or exemplary student at prom.

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About Ebuka Igbokwe

Ebuka Igbokwe is the founder and former leader of a book club, the Liber Book Club, in 2016 and managed it for four years. Ebuka has also authored several children's books. He shares philosophical insights on his newsletter, Carefree Sketches and has published several short stories on a few literary blogs online.

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Review: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

I originally listened to Wonder on Audible, within months of publication, and despite the transatlantic divide, I saw myself vividly in ten-year-old August Pullman. I saw my loving middle-class family, and the sibling who felt both isolated and penned-in by the fallout of my condition. I felt my school anxiety, and the warmth of a small knot of friends, and the embarrassment of targeted bullying. I was thrilled that Auggie even had the same favourite films as I did.

And all of this was shown through the lens of disfigurement, through the eyes of a boy (in the chapters narrated by Auggie) whose eyelids were perhaps sewn at the margins just like mine, who might have my underbite. A character who would know what it’s like to put effort into speaking clearly every time you meet a new person, in case they think the movement of your lips equals your intelligence. All this, written by a woman with no direct experience of disfigurement. This was astounding to me; that someone who, in the end, could never know what it’s actually like seemed to have gotten it so “right.”

I knew the importance of owning one’s own story then, but that conviction only grew in the following years. And I would be reminded that many disabled, disfigured people don’t have the support system Auggie and I have, aren’t able to access the necessary healthcare, aren’t so safely white (or read as such). I’d discover that I’m not the comfortably cisgender boy I thought I was, the boy I thought I saw reflected in Auggie Pullman. In the time since I first read Wonder , my understanding of my disfigurement, and the world it occupies, has transformed. How will I now read and receive what was the most personally representative book of my life?

For starters, Auggie doesn’t have an underbite; in fact, he’s described as having the opposite, though his pronounced overbite does present similar difficulties with eating. Just like me, Auggie had to learn to keep his tongue inside his mouth.

On her website , author R.J. Palacio concedes that – if pushed – she would identify Auggie’s dominant anomaly as Treacher-Collins syndrome, with a cleft lip/palate, and numerous “medical mysteries” as described in the book. It’s these mysteries that rang the first small alarm bells upon re-reading; they seem only to be there to justify the title (inspired by a Natalie Merchant song ) and aren’t described in detail. The 2017 film has confirmed Auggie’s Treacher-Collins, but Palacio’s woolliness on specifying the condition has always seemed weird to me.

Auggie’s sister Via has an interest in genetics, and wants to go into the field to help future Auggies. Whether “help” means improving quality of life or totally preventing Treacher-Collins is an important distinction, one which is unfortunately left unclear. In a culture where genetic conditions are so often seen as problems to be solved by what amount to eugenicist “cures,” that clarity would be useful. But Via’s future intent remains a mystery, as do those aspects of Auggie’s condition previously described.

Besides August’s condition, Wonder is a very beige, cisheteronormative, upper-middle-class and surprisingly abled book. Throughout, August is defined as “not disabled.” He may look different – horrifically so to some – but as the book keeps insisting, deep down he has the same abilities as his family and friends. When a concerned mother writes to the director of Beecher Prep’s middle school, questioning Auggie’s fast-tracked admittance, the director shuts down her talk of the boy’s “special needs.” This moment is admittedly framed by good intentions, with Beecher’s director defending Auggie’s place at the school against a busybody, but when the disabilities of Auggie’s disfigurement are downplayed through the book, it certainly rubbed me a little wrong.

This seems like a missed opportunity, especially as August is the only visible disfigured/disabled character in the book – which, to me, is sad. Auggie has only abled, “normal” people around him; nobody alike to share experiences with, no mentor (or peer) with whom to explore what it means to be disfigured, or to discuss whether disfigurement is a disability. (I believe it is, per the social model .) Via’s boyfriend confides in the reader about his own nervous tics, but he doesn’t describe their origin, nor does he share any real page-time with August.

There are some issues beyond this as well. To borrow and bastardise Via’s solar system metaphor, they gravitate around the good intentions of the author. It’s necessary here to restate that R.J. Palacio doesn’t have direct experience with disfigurement; as far as anyone has been made aware through interviews, no one in her immediate family or peer group is disfigured. Rather, Palacio reports that the impetus to write Wonder came from an incident in which her young son reacted poorly to seeing a disfigured child. After removing her children from the situation immediately, Palacio retrospectively wished that she could have instead utilised the moment to teach –

[Hello, it’s those alarm bells again]

– perhaps engaging with the disfigured child. The spectre of the unpaid educational labour disabled people are expected to provide to abled allies rears its head.

And the question of how allies treat the marginalized is present throughout the most problematic narrative thread in Wonder .  Since August’s birth, Via has dealt with the fallout of his needs, and become independent while Auggie is forever fussed over. At the same time, she puzzles over another kind of independence, from her estranged best friend Miranda, who herself has been almost another sister to Auggie. When Miranda’s point-of-view chapters arrive, Auggie’s true place between her and Via becomes apparent.

Around new friends at summer camp, Miranda talks about August as if he were her own brother in order to garner sympathy and the resultant social capital. Meanwhile, Via rejects the definition of “sister of a kid with a birth defect” that Miranda so readily exploits.

All comes to a head when Via and Miranda’s school puts on a play. When cast as Miranda’s understudy, Via refuses to tell her parents, in a bid to keep August away from the one part of her life he doesn’t impact. After a change of heart and circumstances, the Pullman parents and Auggie do end up attending the play. When she sees this, Miranda makes the last-minute decision to feign illness, allowing Via the opportunity to take the limelight, thus engineering Via’s reconciliation with her brother. Honourable, though not necessarily intentional. And what if August had known the full extent of how both Miranda and Via used and viewed him? I think he’d be well within his rights to feel significantly hurt, and to not forgive as easily as he does throughout the rest of the book.

Because, however hurt Auggie may be by someone, he almost always seems willing to shrug it off. More than once, a character who has done Auggie wrong will assume forgiveness, perhaps after a traumatic event has brought them back together, or laughter has thawed the ice. And each time, Auggie is quick to agree and move on. Perhaps the authorial justification is that Auggie doesn’t like dwelling on things. That’s fair enough, but it does telegraph something of a lack of agency.

Once noticed, this lack of agency is a glaring issue. Stuff happens to Auggie; we see him make choices to be more independent, when circumstances call for it, but his most significant fulfilment of agency is to shut out a friend. (This is also the one time when he doesn’t immediately forgive.) Active, positive actions aren’t Auggie’s to take. Plenty happens to him that is positive – he makes friends, he earns respect, he experiences a “seismic shift” in his social standing following a climactic incident at camp – but it is rarely his decision or intended action which causes it.

There are things that make me sad about Wonder. I wish these opportunities had been recognised and utilized. Auggie’s lack of real agency. The fact that Via and Miranda never truly examine their own actions, and how they treat their brother/“brother.” The marginalised identities which could have enriched the story, but instead will have to wait for the next kidlit book about disfigurement – and when will that be?

There are also things I find suspect or distasteful, such as the book’s meta-campaign “Choose Kind,” inspired by the monthly precepts (inspirational phrases) Auggie’s English teacher hands out. There’s anger in Wonder , mostly borne of pre-teen moodiness, but what does the edict “when given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind” do, except stifle the valid and necessary anger of oppressed people?

It’s not as if R.J. Palacio is utterly unaware of power dynamics; she chose not to give bully Julian a narrative section in Wonder to avoid “[giving]a bully a platform” (although she would later go on to write a short story from Julian’s perspective). She has also said that she most relates to the character of Charlotte, “a good girl, but she’s not quite brave enough to act on her good instincts.” (Both of these insights come from the very informative FAQ page on Palacio’s Wonder website.)

I think what makes me saddest is the fact that Palacio didn’t have direct knowledge to draw from, due to the lack of a significant disfigured person in her life.

Moving beyond the disfigurement representation, it’s important to note that the Pullmans are a (likely) white, reasonably well-off family, living in “a brick townhouse in North River Heights, the hippie-stroller capital of upper- upper Manhattan.” Outside the text, Palacio does concede that Auggie’s father probably “[works]long hours to try and pay for all the medical bills not covered by insurance,” but the fact that no such bills are agonised over within Wonder suggests a fairly easy life. Beecher Prep, by its nature, is attended mostly by students like the Pullmans, whose parents can afford the tuition fees. August has a friend who is probably one of the few exceptions, but it’s never explicitly clear.

And this world seems unconcerned, at best, with race. There are several students with names that suggest they’re kids of colour, but none of their identities are touched upon. More promising are the nods to Isabel Pullman’s Brazilian heritage – August is clearly named after her father, Agosto, and her parents’ travels are described – but hopes that it’s a mixed-race family are dashed when August visits the home of his friend Summer. On seeing a photo of her late father (whose ethnicity is left unclear), Summer confirms her own mixed heritage, and there’s certainly no sense of kinship from Auggie.

For a book published so recently, set in New York City, it is also sad – and somewhat surprising – that there are no nods to LGBTQIA identities. The one (upsetting) exception is a character’s use of “your boyfriend” as a pejorative against an antagonist late in the story.

For all the neglected intersections of identity mourned above, Wonder remains an engaging, enjoyable book. R.J. Palacio’s ten-year-old voices are consistently believable, as are those of her slightly older narrators. The journey of the narrative is satisfying; every major character learns something important about themselves and the world they inhabit.

I still love Wonder , about as much as I did when I first read it. I just want it to be better, so I can evangelise it everywhere, like I used to. Because despite its flaws, Wonder is an engaging, heart-rending story about disfigurement, and the world needs those books.

Perhaps when/if I do see Wonder the film, I’ll write more about it, but for now, you can easily find Twitter threads I’ve made on the subject. More importantly, I want to link to a couple of pieces by others with facial disfigurements/visible differences. First, from American writer Ariel Henley, this article on how the film exploits facial difference , and an Atlantic review of the film , also from Ariel. Finally, I want to share this exhaustive master-post from Australian writer Carly Findlay which covers pretty much every angle of concern about the film.

Thank you for reading these pieces and mine, and I hope that you’ll remember to prioritise and support voices of disfigurement/visible difference, when our lives and livelihoods get thrust into the spotlight.

About Author

Mike Moody is a 27-year-old Disfigured trans woman living in the UK. She makes music and writes when executive function and inspiration (in that order) allow, and takes semi-regular trips to Florida to be with her girlfriend, where she is too hot in the summer and just right in the winter. Mike tweets @guysmiley22 , probably a little too much for her mental health.

26 Comments

Thank you so much, Mike.

Thank you Mike for a thoughtful review of this beautiful and yet challenging title. The thing that struck me in reading it was how easily August’s classmates understood him. In the past I taught a fairly wide variety of students in special education in the US. A few of them had facial disfigurements as part of other medical conditions and I taught a student who was recovering from severe burns over much of his body. What I found the disfigured students struggled with the most was being understood in conversation by their peers. Because they didn’t always produce the anticipated facial expression to accompany their speech their peers tended to misread their intentions, their tone, their mood. This was particularly true of the child with substantial burn scars over most of his face. I’m not disfigured myself, so perhaps this was just the issue most apparent to me as a teacher. And maybe I’m off base entirely. Still I had my hesitations from the beginning because the book seemed to overlook such a central issue. I’m an indie bookseller and I do book talks for teachers all the time. I’ll be sure to point them in the direction of this review when Wonder comes up. Thank you for being so thoughtful and thorough in your critique.

HI Mike, Let me start off by saying you did a very good job at being thorough and making it easy to understand what the story was about, especially for someone like me who hasn’t read it yet. I have heard many good things about this book. Just from your critique I read that it talks about children with disabilities or disfigurements and how it is important for students to treat one another the same no matter what how someone looks or acts. They deserve the same respect as others. I think I would probably really love this book because I am currently going to school for teaching and I believe this is an issue we still have because sometimes individuals don’t truly understand why someone was born the way they were or whatever the case is but to teach that it is important to respect everyone and treat them the same as you would want to be treated. Thank you for your critique and I look forward to reading this book.

I am really impressed by your expressions. Actually, I feel the people who are deformed on their faces do not want that. Deformities can be genetic or accidental. More than that, disfigured people always need someone who can understand and can share with them. However, the way people around treat disfigured people makes them difficult to interact with. Many people will tend to misunderstand or isolate people who have deformed faces. That will create a big gap between people. I am really grateful, and I am sure I will find and read this book.

I really enjoyed your detailed review of this inspiring yet thought-provoking title, “Wonder”. In your review several thinks stuck out to me. In the before part of your review you talked about how relatable you felt to ten-year-old August Pullman. You discussed in detail how you felt the pressures of meeting new people and them thinking because your speech may be delayed that they would judge your intelligence from this. I wonder, is the pressure still high when you meet people? Has your reading of this book ‘Wonder’, gave you more confidence to mingle with others? You also talked about how the author, R.J. Palacio was a woman who never experienced disfigurement, but actually got the character right. Why do you think this is? Do you think she knew or shadowed someone to really capture the essence for the character? These are some questions that I have after reading your very insightful review. Also, you talked about how easy it was for Auggie’s friends to understand him. I feel like the author did fluff a lot of what in reality would not happen. In the real world August would not have been understood so quickly if at all by peers that were not like him. Your review has really give me lots of insight from the book perspective. Most of your questions and thoughts throughout your after part of your review, has me also pondering the same questions. I saw the movie and I am going to read the book very soon to make comparisons. I thought the movie was amazing! I didn’t realize that the character in the movie wasn’t a disfigured person in real life. Thank you Mike for your review and I hope that you change your mind about watching the movie!

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I know this was written a while back, but unfortunately R.J Palacio’s website doesn’t seem to be working now.

I think that is article was written quite well. This my first time hearing a review on this story and I think you raise some very good points. You are definitely right. The author should’ve included more information as it pertains to Auggie’s condition. However, I think that one of the reasons why they left it up in the air may have been for the readers to explore and do some personal research. Another thing that I found interesting was the idea that Auggie is from a high-middle class family. I wonder what his life would’ve been like if he were from a lower class. I know his access to schools would be much more limited and that may affect the reactions from his peers and I also think that he wouldn’t have access to the best medical resources. I have not yet read or seen Wonder but I think that it does start a conversation on the physical disfiguration known as Treacher-Collins. I think that the next best step would be to create a film that would focus on someone who actually has the condition, or like you said, cast someone in a movie that already has the condition as opposed to using prosthetics for the actors.

Mike, Your critique of this book was spot on. This book has been read by all the teenagers in my house and they all love it. They are on Auggie’s side and don’t understand why people are so cruel. They have seen many child with various disabilities and see them as no different from themselves. It’s been one of the great benefits of me working in the special education field. I try to teach my own kids and the kids in my classroom to be accepting of all people and they’re differences.

As a future teacher i found this book very interesting, especially it being targeted for middle schoolers. This book deals with something all students can relate too, whether that’s being new to a school, being bullied by classmates, or other related themes that go on in school. Overall this book portrays plenty if positive messages. It is a good book to share with students, the message is all about being kind to one another. Everyone needs someone to give them unconditional love.

I read wonder about 2 years ago! I will admit it made me cry tears of frustration and later joy. I could vividly feel and see what it was like to be each character in the story through the authors words. At the time I was working at a middle school and it was a school wife project for everyone to read the book. It was so touching and heart warming to see the other students reactions to the book. I was working with a student that has Pierre Robins syndrome and he had to wear a trach in order to breathe. I always felt protective of him when we walked in the halls or outside because I could see the stares from parents and other students and I didn’t want the student to fall under the gaze of those looks. Deep down I know I could never protect him from society and he has been living with this condition his whole life. But my nurturing soul couldn’t help it. After reading this book I could see hat more student started giving him high fives in the hall. It was just very warming. August is heroic in my eyes. I’m so glad he had the support from his family in friends each step of the way.

I read Wonder about 2 years ago while working in the school system and it was a school wide assignment to read Wonder and complete a project. All around the halls we had the saying “choose Kindness”.I will admit it made cry tears of joy and frustration. I could vividly feel and imagine what it was like for each character in the story through the authors words. At the time I was working with a young man that was born with Pierre Robins syndrome and had to wear a trach in order to breathe. I always felt protective of him when we walked in the halls or outside because I could see the stares from the parents and other student. I wanted to protect him from falling under gazes of concern or just curiosity. Deep down I knew I could never protect him from society. I think he may have coped with the looks better than me being that he’s been living with the condition his whole life. All the characters in Wonder were heroic to me. I could see how things shifted in the school after reading this book! I noticed the student I was working with kind of had a little more confidence.

Your review of this book definitely made me want to read it and learn more about August Pullman. Disabilities come in many shapes and forms and as a special education teacher, I love to read and learn more about others perspectives regarding any kind of disabilities and how if effects them personally. I see there was a movie made about this book and I’m looking forward to seeing that as well!

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I loved you review. I haven’t read the book or watched the movie, however you have made ask my self some questions about the books i am buying for my children. My children will not learn about all the wonderful people in the world if I don’t expose them to them.

Mike this was an amazing review of this reading! I definitely agree that the author should’ve included more information about the characters condition. Another thing that I found interesting was the idea that Auggie is from a high-middle class family his access to schools would be much more limited and that may affect the reactions from his classmates and I also think that he wouldn’t have access to the best medical resources which would have unfortunately made his life even more difficult but ultimately more relatable for some readers. I completely agree that they should cast someone in a movie that already has the condition as opposed to using prosthetics and for the actors.

I have not read this book; however, I would like to read about how disabilities appproached in this book. I want to be sensitive to children that may experience bullying or be outcast by their peers. I have a nephew that has no hands and no feet. His siblings are very aware of this and are quite protective. They do not hesitate to stare down a person who may be whispering and pointing at their brother. Nothing stops my nephew from learning to do whatever he wants to do academically or physically. I would hope this book would point out the importance of family support of children with abilities that may be different from other children.

Thank you for this thoughtful and very detailed book review. I am studying to become an elementary teacher and learning about children with different disabilities is very important to me. This book sounds like it would make me cry. Bullying in school by your peers is not easy to deal with, however, Wonder has many positive messages we can all relate to. I can’t wait to read the book and see the movie.

Mike, you did a great job with this review. I have read and watched the movie and I loved them both. This was actually the first book I ever read about a child with a disability. It made me realize that there aren’t many books available that show a child with a disability going through there day to day lives. I think that this book is important for kids to read because it gives them a different perspective on how to treat people. I do think that the author could have gone into more detail about the condition but overall I would say they did a great job. I also loved how they not only showed the boys life but also how his condition affected his entire family.

Thank you for the critique of the book. I really enjoyed your thorough and detailed review that would definitely help people struggling have a better understanding of it. I think all students should be required to read this book because it really shows how everyone should be treated equality no matter what. This kid struggled getting picked on by his fellow classmates just by the way he looks. It really does raise awareness with disabilities and bullying so all schools should have it required to read around the time of middle school. The book really shows that everyone should have love, kindness, and respect with one another because at the end of the day you don’t know what the person is going through.

Thank you for this post! My daughter has CHARGE syndrome, and has a small eye ( microphthalmia ) as well as vision and hearing loss, short stature, and developmental delay. She has always fought to fit in, and she is struggling really hard in 8th grade. We have all read Wonder, and watched the movie as a family. She can really relate to Auggie, and I think her brother and sister can relate to Via. Thanks again for perspective, I really enjoyed it!

What is this comment section? What is happening? And I remember reading the interview where she talks about her ‘inspiration’ for the book in a kids magazine when I was way younger. It never quite sat perfect with me. And I would have been soooo bugged about the ‘helping kids like Auggie’ thing when it’s never clarified how she wants to help/””””””””help””””””” (flashbacks to when I tried to convince my entire biology class that using genetic engineering to prevent autism and ADHD wouldn’t actually be a good thing until the only other kid in said class with ADHD finally put me out of my misery and asked the teacher to change the subject. For context, at that point I don’t really think anyone else in the class knew there were kids with ADHD in said class).

Hi Mike, thanks for the review. I am a woman who has lived with a disfigurement since birth, and I had a really hard time getting through Wonder. What a perfect example of the very concept of inspiration porn. I am glad you are injecting some much-needed nuance into the conversation, it’s exhausting to hear people defend this book and act like it’s the perfect work of fiction.

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Wonder leans on its great cast to tell an engaging, warmhearted family story

Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts, and Owen Wilson star in a movie based on the best-selling novel.

by Alissa Wilkinson

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The old maxim exhorting us to “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” is the thesis of Wonder — it’s even quoted at the end of the film — and Wonder handles it well, following a boy named August Pullman, his family, and his friends through a year of change in their lives.

August, nicknamed Auggie, was born with a chromosome condition that causes facial deformities, and after 27 surgeries he still looks noticeably different from other kids his age. His perspective on his life is certainly the core of the movie, and that’s part of what made the novel it’s based on a best-seller.

But Wonder doesn’t focus exclusively on Auggie, and that’s its biggest strength. The film’s bigger story is that even though Auggie’s family — his parents, his sister, even his dog — has bent their lives around his, they, too, are dealing with their own struggles. So are Auggie’s friends, and even his enemies.

While the movie’s premise feels prone to the maudlin, it’s ultimately quite poignant; Wonder is a family-oriented tale in which people make mistakes in the way they treat one another, but learn and grow in a way that doesn’t feel condescending to the film’s younger audience. Importantly, Wonder is also a movie about a young boy with a condition that makes him stand out from his peers — but it doesn’t valorize or patronize him by painting him as a saint. It respects Auggie too much for that.

Wonder is a sensitive exploration of the many ways people struggle in ordinary life

The movie picks up as Auggie ( Jacob Tremblay ) is getting ready to attend school for the first time, a new fifth-grader who’s been homeschooled thus far. His mother Isabel ( Julia Roberts ), his father Nate ( Owen Wilson ), and his sister Via ( Izabela Vidovic ) are all supportive and encouraging, but he’s not convinced it’s a step he is ready to take, and when they walk him to school through the park on his first day, he’s reticent to take off his beloved astronaut helmet.

Thanks to the school’s kindly headmaster, Mr. Tushman ( Mandy Patinkin ), Auggie has already met three of his classmates: chatty Charlotte ( Elle McKinnon ); quiet Jack Will ( Noah Jupe ); and two-faced Julian ( Bryce Gheisar ), who performs niceness around adults but harbors a serious mean streak. He soon meets another classmate, the immediately kind-to-him Summer ( Millie Davis ), and likes his energetic teacher Mr. Browne ( Daveed Diggs ), but school is still difficult for Auggie. He knows the other kids are looking at him, even if nobody is being mean. Every day makes him question whether he’ll ever be able to feel like he truly fits in.

His sister Via, meanwhile, is in high school and discovering that her lifelong best friend Miranda ( Danielle Rose Russell ) has changed over the summer. She joins theater and makes a new friend, Justin ( Nadji Jeter ), but simultaneously grapples with feeling as if she’s in second place regarding her parents’ affections — something she’s grown used to, given Auggie’s great need for care and attention.

Via’s story is told from her perspective, which adds layers to our understanding of her, and Wonder delves into the perspectives of other characters, too: Jack Will, Miranda, Isabel, and even Julian. It turns out that learning about other people’s fears, wants, hurts, and joys can make everything those people do — the bad stuff and the good stuff — make more sense. And as the school year goes on, they all grow in their maturity and relationships with one another, and in their ability to experience empathy.

The film leans on strong characters and a strong cast to tell a warm, meaningful story

Wonder succeeds largely on the strength of its cast, which includes a bevy of stellar performers led by Tremblay’s sensitive portrayal of Auggie as a complicated kid who worries about his classmates but sometimes yells at his parents and sister, too.

But it’s also a tricky story to tell without tipping over into manipulation. Director Stephen Chbosky ( The Perks of Being a Wallflower ) adapted R.J. Palacio’s source novel into a screenplay with Steve Conrad and Jack Thorne , and it neatly avoids becoming a didactic after-school special about why it’s important for people to be kind by letting the story work as a character piece, full of humor and warmth and conflict and fun. Sometimes the adults deliver speeches about growing up and dealing with life, but those speeches always seem to flow organically from their characters.

Of course, Wonder is still a moderately sentimental film. And as a movie called Wonder that’s aimed at families, that characteristic is practically in its DNA. But it earns the sentiment. Auggie struggles, and so do his parents, and his sister, and his friends. And so do we all. A bit of kindness is never out of place. And these days, it seems more important than ever.

Wonder opens in theaters on November 17.

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Based on the R.J. Palacio novel of the same name, “Wonder” follows a year in the life of August Pullman ( Jacob Tremblay ), Auggie, for short. He was born with a genetic abnormality that has required him to undergo surgeries and medical treatments since his earliest days. 

Director Stephen Chbosky has managed to take a story that could have been painfully mawkish and made it genuinely moving in (mostly) understated ways. The makeup work here is solid and believable, revealing Auggie’s sad eyes behind downturned facial lines and nubs of skin for ears. He’s a prepubescent Rocky Dennis. The script, co-written by Chbosky, Steve Conrad and Jack Thorne , is wise to establish quickly that Auggie is a regular kid in every other way. He loves “ Star Wars ” and Minecraft. He has an aptitude for science, a sly sense of humor, and an active imagination that helps him navigate uncomfortable situations. (“Wonder” occasionally dabbles in magical realism, but in ways that are more amusing than distracting.)

Uniformly strong performances help ground the story. Tremblay, who showed instincts beyond his years in the devastating 2015 drama “ Room ,” provides both a sweetness and an intelligence to his 10-year-old character that make him accessible even when he’s wearing an astronaut helmet to hide his face. Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson find just the right notes as his supportive parents. But the real surprise here is Izabela Vidovic as Tremblay’s older sister, who’s been generous enough to allow her brother to be the center of the family’s attention at the expense of her own emotional need.

His mom, Isabel (Roberts), put her career on hold to homeschool him from the beginning in the family’s Brooklyn brownstone. But now that Auggie is of middle school age, Isabel and his dad, Nate (Wilson), decide to send him to Beecher Prep so he’ll learn to socialize with other kids and become more comfortable in the outside world. All are understandably apprehensive about this major shift, fraught as it is with the potential for bullying and isolation. And indeed, when his parents walk him to the front gates and send him off on his own for the first time, the kids on campus stop their conversations to gawk and part for him. But Chbosky depicts this event matter-of-factly, allowing the tension of the moment to emerge naturally.

There are some familiar figures here: the hip teacher who gives innovative assignments that just happen to coincide with the film’s themes ( Daveed Diggs ); the mean rich kid who torments him alongside a posse of brutes ( Bryce Gheisar ); the shy girl who might become an unexpected friend ( Millie Davis ). But the effortless connection Auggie strikes up with a kid named Jack Will ( Noah Jupe )—who also feels like an outsider as a working-class scholarship student—is one of the film’s truest joys, as well as a source of legitimate drama.

Just when “Wonder” seems to be settling into a routine at school, it shifts and revisits that first day from a variety of other characters’ perspectives. So we learn what happened to Auggie’s lonely sister, Via, when she met a cute new boy ( Nadji Jeter ) and dared to sign up for the high school play. We get a glimpse into Jack Will’s home life, which enriches the significance of his relationship with Auggie. We find out what’s really going on with Via’s lifelong best friend, Miranda ( Danielle Rose Russell ), who suddenly snubbed her at the start of the school year.

As he did with his insightful young adult drama “ The Perks of Being a Wallflower ,” Chbosky handles major adolescent events with decency and grace. The cumulative effect—as overly simplistic as it may sound – is the powerful understanding of what it feels like to walk in someone else’s shoes. The emotion of this enlightenment sneaks up on you in quiet ways. Even Wilson, whose character feels underwritten beyond providing comic relief during moments of family tension, gets perhaps the most heartbreaking, uplifting line in the whole film. You’ll shed a tear or two—especially if you’re a parent—and they’ll be totally earned.

All of which makes it so frustrating that “Wonder” throws that restraint and goodwill out the window in its finale and turns wildly sentimental. Chbosky cranks up the feel-good with a climax full of wild applause at the most clichéd place possible: a school assembly. How is it possible that so many cinematic moments of truth take place before a packed auditorium?

But the film does so much so well for so long that its pat conclusion feels forgivable. Early on during a screening of “Wonder,” when the film first reveals the scars and deformities that mark the hero’s face, my eight-year-old son turned to me and whispered, “He looks weird.” Once the movie was over, as we were walking out of the theater and I asked him what he thought, he exclaimed: “I loved it!” Such is the film’s transformative power. It is a machine for creating empathy.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film Credits

Wonder (2017)

Rated PG for thematic elements including bullying, and some mild language.

113 minutes

Jacob Tremblay as Auggie

Owen Wilson as Nate

Izabela Vidovic as Via

Julia Roberts as Isabel

Noah Jupe as Jack Will

• Stephen Chbosky

Writer (based on the novel by)

• R.J. Palacio
• Steve Conrad
• Jack Thorne

Cinematographer

• Don Burgess
• Mark Livolsi
• Marcelo Zarvos

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Based on the book by the best-selling author of Wonder, this uplifting movie shows how one act of kindness can live on forever. Based on the book by the best-selling author of Wonder, this uplifting movie shows how one act of kindness can live on forever. Based on the book by the best-selling author of Wonder, this uplifting movie shows how one act of kindness can live on forever.

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• Trivia Originally set for a release on September 16, 2022, it was pushed to October 14, 2022. Later that month, the film was quietly removed from the schedule and pushed to August 25, 2023, due to underperforming at the Fall (2021 box office and pushed again to an unspecified date due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
• Connections Follows Wonder (2017)
• Soundtracks It Can't Be Wrong written by Kim Gannon, Max Steiner Performed by Vera Lynn

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• Runtime 2 hours
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‘wonder woman’ #9 perfectly captures diana’s resolve.

Wonder Woman endures more hardships in ‘Sacrifice’ part 2.

Wonder Woman has been nothing less than exceptional, and in the latest three-issue story arc, she’s trapped with seemingly no aid on the way. As writer Tom King said on the AIPT Comics podcast, there are three trials for her to endure, with the second happening this week in Wonder Woman #9 . She faced the Lasso of Lies in Wonder Woman #8 , and now it’s a trial by isolation. Thankfully, she’s got Steve Trevor by her side – or is he actually there at all?

It’s fitting King and artist Daniel Sampere have Wonder Woman up against a psychological attack in this latest arc since the series has shown us she’s more than punching and super strength, but also her resolve. Last issue, Diana faced a domestic lifestyle where she was a homemaker for Steve, but it was all a lie. Here, Steve is her support system while she endures isolation. She’s created a kind of imaginary friend to keep her sane in the quiet darkness, with different scenes showing how she keeps it fresh and endures.

Wonder Woman #9 opens with Wonder Woman at dinner with Steve Trevor. At first, you may think they’re having a nice dinner, but soon, they’re walking in a field, fighting a giant demon and caring for her kangaroo Jumpa. They discuss her time in isolation, first a few days, weeks, and then months. The time is hard to fathom, given how resilient Wonder Woman is inside.

More Jumpa, please. Credit: DC Comics

In a way, these scenes show us different sides of Wonder Woman. There’s also a through-line as she discusses a rat in the cell with her. It leads to a grave situation and then pity. There’s a lot to think about as you read as the creators put you literally inside Wonder Woman’s mind. You’ll consider her resolve and her needs and wants. Ultimately, the creators are saying she can’t be beaten, no matter what. Though it’s not on the page, King also let us know in the interview there is a plan at work here, so it’s not all for nothing.

Sampere’s art is gorgeous, with incredible backgrounds of the old west, Barcelona, and beautiful vistas. It may all be inside Diana’s head, but she sure knows how to pick beautiful spots to spend the time.

There’s also a backup story by King and Belen Ortega that continues Trinity’s adventures as she ages a bit more. Like a Saturday morning cartoon, another lighthearted story involves two corgis. One is named Jon, and the other Damian. Trinity attempts to train these dogs, to no avail, as they’re stubborn and mostly cute. One might wonder why Trinity has two dogs, but all is revealed by the end, and it actually makes some sense. Ortega continues to bring a lot of charm to the characterizations, and she draws a great corgi.

Wonder Woman #9 continues to show the incredible resolve of Wonder Woman as she fights against the threat of losing her mind. The creators continue to show Diana’s strength in ways we haven’t even imagined. Plus, there’s another super cute backup story!

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Fourth wing parents guide: is the rebecca yarros series suitable for teens.

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10 Fourth Wing Book Moments We Must See In The Amazon Show

How much bigger olivier richters’ paulie is compared to alan ritchson’s reacher, this office horror movie from 8 years ago is perfect to watch while waiting for severance season 2.

• Fourth Wing's steamy sex scenes may not be suitable for younger teenagers due to detailed, explicit content.
• Older teens may handle the physical intimacy scenes better, but parental discretion is advised.
• The romantasy genre, including Fourth Wing, breaks away from chaste romance with erotic interactions.

Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing series has blown up, prompting parents to question how suitable it is for their teenage readers and whether it's appropriate reading material for certain ages . The first book was released in April 2023 and quickly blew up on the bestseller list, particularly after BookTok readers got ahold of it. The love story between Fourth Wing protagonists Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson is a big part of it, particularly their steamy sex scenes.

Fourth Wing has often been compared to A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, thanks to both being huge hits and on the more erotic end of the romantasy genre . Considering that, it's fair to wonder just how suitable it is for readers of certain ages, and at what age a reader might be able to handle Fourth Wing 's sex scenes and adult sexual themes. Of course, every parent is free to make their own decisions, but hopefully, this guide will help inform their opinions.

Amazon is adapting Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing for the small screen, and the series will bring many amazing moments from the book to life.

Fourth Wing's Sexual Content Probably Isn't Suitable For Younger Teenagers

The sex scenes are detailed and specific.

The sexually explicit nature of Fourth Wing 's erotic scenes marks it firmly out-of-bounds for preteens and younger, and it's still a very gray area for younger teenagers who don't yet have the maturity to handle scenes intense physical intimacy. Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses series has undoubtedly gotten the lion's share of talk for its erotic nature, but Fourth Wing and especially its sequel, Iron Flame , are arguably even more detailed and sexually explicit than Maas' books.

Fourth Wing is a bit tamer, seeing as how it takes a while for protagonist Violet Sorrengail and love interest Xaden Riorson to get over their mutual hatred, accept their attraction, then act on it. In Iron Flame , however, there are no such pretenses of hating each other. As well, part of the story involves them being apart for periods at a time, so the reunion sex scenes are longer, more detailed, and more explicit.

Older Teenagers May Be Able To Handle The Physically Intimate Scenes (At Parents' Discretion)

Fourth wing is explicit - but respectful.

Fourth Wing certainly tells a great story about training with dragons and a kingdom readying itself for war. But it is, first and foremost, a love story between two young people, and it comes with all the passion and drama that the relationships of young people come with. When the story begins, Violet is 20 years old and Xaden is 23. Feelings are more intense, as are the hormonal urges and the libido of each. Older teenagers going through the same feelings can likely handle this part of the book. That said, it's up to each parent how much sexual content they want their teens to have access to, and Fourth Wing is no different.

One thing that Fourth Wing definitely has working in its favor is that protagonist Violet Sorrengail knows herself well and advocates for herself. This is true both for their dynamic in the bedroom, in which Violet always gives consent or initiates sexual intimacy, and for their relationship, in which Violet often is the one laying down ground rules about communication and partnership.

It's not perfect – there are times that both Violet and Xaden can come across less like they're in their early 20s and more like they're teenagers. But Violet stands up for herself and voices what she wants and needs, setting boundaries and advocating agency for herself, something relatively new to romantically inclined YA heroines. This is not the problematic, age-inappropriate relationship of Twilight with a heroine who has no idea how to speak up for herself. In that, Violet is a good role model for teenage readers.

Fourth Wing Is Part Of The Romantasy Genre (& What That Is)

It's a relatively new term (& genre).

Savvy parents may have seen the term "romantasy" popping up on the internet in the past few years after the proliferation of Sarah J. Maas' work on BookTok. It's a portmanteau of "romance" and "fantasy," but it can be a misleading term for those who expect the romance to be more chaste like teen-oriented books of past generations. The romance in the romantasy genre can be a lot closer to the Harlequin notion of romance , complete with erotic interactions and sexually explicit scenes. Fantasy is no longer the realm of young readers or Dungeons & Dragons. With books like Fourth Wing , it's now for curious older teens and adult women looking for an escape, too.

• Fourth Wing

Based on the novel series by Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing is an action-adventure fantasy series in development for Prime Video. Announced in 2024, Fourth Wing will follow the adventures of a young woman named Violet Sorrengail, who has been taken from her peaceful book-reading life and thrust into a world of danger when she is forced by her mother to join an elite group of dragon-riding warriors.

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Huawei Matebook X Pro (2024) review: A lightweight wonder

• Jonathan Bray

The best laptop Huawei has ever made, but the ultra light MateBook X Pro (2024) is just far too expensive

• Ultra light
• Beautifully well made
• Fantastic screen
• Single specification in the UK

Super light laptops are nothing new but we still don’t see sub-1kg machines all that often, and those with screens bigger than 13in are vanishingly rare. The latest Huawei Matebook X Pro (2024) ticks both of those boxes while also delivering a specification, design and build quality that’s hard to fault.

No two ways about it, this year’s MateBook X Pro is a stupendous little laptop. It’s beautifully made, fast and incredibly lightweight, and it’s packed with thoughtful and useful features. There are only two caveats: the first is that it is expensive – the priciest Huawei MateBook X Pro yet; and the second is that, even if you wanted one, it’s possible that you won’t be able to buy one at all.

That’s because, on 7 May 2024, the US reportedly revoked some of Intel’s export licences, which had allowed it to export some semiconductors to Huawei. The details haven’t been revealed but it’s clearly a decision that could affect the availability of Intel-based Huawei laptops both now and in the future.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: What do you need to know

The major attraction of the Huawei MateBook, however, is its slender chassis, which measures a mere 13.5mm at its thickest part, and weighs a meagre 980g. It’s also jam packed with all the latest hardware.

Inside, it’s equipped with the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU, with 40W Intel Arc Graphics on board and Intel’s discrete NPU (neural processing unit). It’s backed by 32GB of RAM and a sizeable 2TB SSD as standard.

Despite its sub-1kg weight, the MateBook X Pro (2024) has a relatively large 14.2in OLED touchscreen display, which uses the same flexible OLED panel technology as used in foldable phones – to keep the weight down. The screen has a practical 3:2 aspect ratio, a resolution of 3,120 x 2,080 pixels and a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It’s topped with scratch-resistant glass and has narrow bezels, too, for a 93% screen-to-body ratio.

Other key features include two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and one USB-C 3.2, a glass-topped haptic touchpad, an infrared 1440p webcam that supports Windows Hello login and a fingerprint reader built into the power button that does the same.

Huawei MateBook X Pro review: Price and competition

Configuration tested: Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU with Arc Graphics; 32GB RAM; 2TB SSD; 14.2in 120Hz OLED display; Price when reviewed: £2,099

For this lightweight wonder, however, you can expect to pay through the nose. There’s only one UK specification available – the one with the Core Ultra 9 185H, 32GB of RAM and that 2TB SSD – and it will cost a hefty £2,099 inc VAT when it hits the shops on 18 June.

That’s not quite as much as Apple is asking for a 13.6in M3 MacBook Air of similar specification – with 24GB RAM and 2TB SSD storage. A M3 MacBook Air is £2,199 – but it isn’t far off. And it doesn’t compare well with other similar Windows machines.

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED , which admittedly isn’t quite as powerful, slender or light as this machine, is half the price at £1,255 and it most certainly isn’t half the laptop. It comes with a 14in OLED touchscreen, an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. To top it all off, Asus even includes a stylus in the box; it’s a superb machine for the money.

For a mere £2,000, meanwhile, you could pick up my favourite laptop this year: the Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) . It comes with a near identical specification to the Huawei – a Core Ultra 9, 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD – but has two 14in 120Hz OLED displays, not just one.

And if raw power in a portable package is what you seek, you could also take a look at the latest batch of compact gaming machines from the likes of HP and Lenovo, notably the HP Omen Transcend 14 and the Lenovo Slim 5 Gen 8 . We’ve tested both, and despite being significantly heavier than the Huawei it’s worth paying the penalty for the performance-to-weight ratio.

The Omen Transcend 14 costs £1,549 and comes with a 120Hz OLED display, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and includes an Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU, while the Lenovo comes with a similar specification but with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU in place of the Intel one.

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Huawei MateBook X Pro 2024 review: Design and key features

• Super light – 980g
• Stiff magnesium alloy chassis
• No 3.5mm jack

From the outside, it must be said, the Huawei MateBook X Pro doesn’t look much. My review sample was finished in a fairly dull-looking bluish-grey with a matte finish, and its wedge-shaped profile with rounded corners is about as derivative as it gets.

It is mercifully minimalistic, which I like, the base being largely clear of labels, fussy vents and grilles. And the same matte finish that wraps both the base and the lid extends to the inside, surrounding the touchpad and keyboard. I am a big fan of the way this feels under the finger, by the way: it’s rough yet refined and resists fingerprints nicely – a refreshingly different approach to the smooth brushed or anodised finishes that are so widely popular on most premium ultraportables.

Moreover, there’s something miraculous about how stiff and rigid the whole thing feels. It’s built from magnesium alloy and whether you twist the lid or the base there’s no creaking whatsoever, and there’s very, very little flex. This feels bombproof – a feat given how light it is.

Speaking of achievements, the speaker system on this machine is another area where this laptop outdoes itself and most others of its ilk. The speakers, which fire up from either side of the keyboard, emit prodigiously loud audio, that is both detailed and remarkably full-bodied. There isn’t much in the way of bass but Huawei has managed to imbue the sound profile with a pleasing amount of body. Podcasts, radio and audiobooks sound great on it, you’ll still want to hook up your headphones for movies and music, though.

It’s a little less impressive elsewhere. Look around the edges and you’ll see that, despite there being three USB-C ports (one USB 3.2 and two Thunderbolt 4), Huawei has neglected to include a 3.5mm audio jack or any kind of card reader. The much cheaper Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (2024) has an audio connector, plus a full-sized HDMI output and a 5Gbits/sec USB-A port.

The keyboard feels a little rattly under the finger, too. Don’t get me wrong here, I quite enjoyed typing on it. Large key tops coupled with plenty of surrounding space – and a reasonable amount of key travel – combine to deliver a decently comfortable and quick touch-typing experience. And in a neat touch, it has a dedicated key for launching voice typing between the F6 and F7 keys. It’s just that I’d expect a slightly higher-quality feel from a laptop costing north of two grand.

The haptic touchpad is a dream, though. I love how you can run your finger up and down the left and right edges to adjust the screen brightness. The way the touchpad goes right up to the front edge of the wristrest is a nice visual touch, too, setting the laptop apart from the competition.

I did attempt to remove the base of the laptop to have a little look inside, but after removing six tiny Torx screws and prising the front edge of the base away from the main chassis, I struggled to get the rear corners to release. Nervous that I was applying too much force and unable to find any other screws, I gave up at this point, which is a shame. Even if you can’t upgrade the RAM or storage, it’s always good to be able to get into a laptop, if only to perform essential maintenance like cleaning the fans or swapping out a bad battery for a good one.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Display

• Choice of factory-calibrated presets
• Bright and colour accurate
• 3:2 aspect ratio is practical for working

The 3K OLED 120Hz touch display is becoming something of a standard in 2024 on laptops costing £1,500 and up. Where manufacturers often fall short, however, is that they rarely calibrate the screens in the factory and colour accuracy suffers as a result.

The Huawei MateBook X Pro bucks that trend by including a whole host of calibration presets for its OLED display, switchable in its Display Manager software. The default is “Native” but you can also choose from eight other profiles, including sRGB, BT.709 (BT.1886), AdobeRGB (D65) and a number of rather hard-to-decipher profiles based on the P3 colour space. There’s “Photography (DCI-P3)”, and two “Digital Cinema” profiles – “P3-DCI” and “P3-D65”, plus an “ebook” profile that turns the screen greyscale for reading.

The MateBook X Pro also has the option to match the white point of the display with the white point of the lighting in your room, and there’s a toggle to enable an “Eye Comfort” mode, which cuts out blue light for use in darkened rooms late at night.

So how does it look? It looks great with all types of content, from documents to HDR YouTube videos, and that’s backed up by a stellar performance in our technical tests. I measured peak brightness at 600cd/m2 in non-HDR mode and a mind-blowing 1,219cd/m2 with HDR content. Black level response is effectively as perfect as you’d expect and colour reproduction runs to 117% of DCI-P3 in Native mode. It’s plenty capable, in other words.

It’s also highly colour accurate. I tested the Digital Cinema (P3-D65) profile first, comparing it against the stock D65 colour profile in DisplayCal and saw a Delta E colour variance across greyscale and colour test patches of a mere 1.01, a result that by any standards is exceptional. The sRGB and AdobeRGB modes weren’t quite as good but scores of 1.31 and 1.41 are still highly impressive.

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Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Performance and battery life

• Intel Core 9 Ultra 185H is quick
• GPU allows for casual gaming
• Battery life well below par

Unusually, there’s only one model of MateBook X Pro (2024) available in the UK and it comes with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU inside, 32GB of quad-channel RAM and a 2TB SSD. The Core Ultra 9 is Intel’s top-level chip in its new range of AI-enabled CPUs and it has 16 physical cores (22 threads) split across 6 performance cores, 8 efficient cores and 2 low-power efficient cores. Maximum Turbo clock frequency is 5.1GHz and it has a TDP of 45W.

I’ve seen this processor once before, inside the excellent Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) , where it delivered strong performance, and decent battery life. Here, we have equivalent performance, with strong numbers in both CPU and GPU tests – it beats the M3 Apple MacBook Air across the board and achieves similar stamina in the battery life tests.

It can’t match the cheaper Lenovo and HP machines for GPU power, naturally, as those machines have discrete Nvidia GPUs, but its Intel Arc Graphics give it more oomph for creative jobs and a little light gaming than Windows machines with Iris Xe graphics.

Battery life is decent, too, despite the first three runs of the battery life benchmark returning disappointing results, only reaching 6hrs 46mins in our standard test . It turned out the laptop was quietly engaging Huawei’s Super Turbo mode whenever I fired up VLC, so I disabled this in the Huawei settings and tried again and this time it jumped up to 10hrs 46mins, which was a much more impressive result.

Super Turbo Mode, according to Huawei’s website, “intelligently identifies app running scenarios and manages system resources based on the status of hardware such as CPUs, GPUs, memory, hard disks, and batteries”, which sounds impressive. However, since you can’t really tell which apps it’s accelerating – the popup doesn’t appear consistently and there’s no other way to tell what it’s doing – you’re better off disabling it, especially as it seems to have a detrimental effect on battery life.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) review: Verdict

The Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) is a great example of superb piece of hardware, undone by wrong-headed pricing and component choices. There’s so much to like here, but it’s the light weight, finish, build quality and speakers that impress – not the single, super high-end specification or the high price that comes from it.

This is such a shame because thanks to the US export licence situation, this may well be one of the last Huawei laptops we see with an Intel CPU and, had Huawei chosen to offer it with a Core 7 Ultra with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, it might very well be one of the greatest, too. As it is, I just can’t see many people taking the plunge. The Huawei MateBook X Pro (2024) is a very, very good laptop, but it’s not quite good enough to justify that price.