Wonder (Wonder, #1) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Dec 21, 2013 Melissa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

http://merrylandgirl.blogspot.com/201... ...more

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Dec 27, 2014 Jessica Haider rated it it was amazing

Shelves: childrens

4.5 out of 5 stars.

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Jul 01, 2017 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, american-fiction, young-adult-fiction, children-s-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was very good. At first I hated the multiple points of view, switching with each chapter, but this trick did fill in parts of the story Auggie could not, realistically, have provided. It's a good read even for adults, I think - a reminder about the importance of kindness. Auggie is also written really well: he has brains and a great sense of humor and readers will be drawn into his life.

I did have a couple of minor critiques and one larger one. I wish I'd had a trigger warning that Da This book was very good. At first I hated the multiple points of view, switching with each chapter, but this trick did fill in parts of the story Auggie could not, realistically, have provided. It's a good read even for adults, I think - a reminder about the importance of kindness. Auggie is also written really well: he has brains and a great sense of humor and readers will be drawn into his life.

I did have a couple of minor critiques and one larger one. I wish I'd had a trigger warning that Daisy (the dog) was going to die. I have a really hard time handling animal death and I had to put the book down for a while. I know trigger warnings are serious and I'm fairly certain reading about dogs dying does not actually "trigger" me in the same way that various other events in writing do for, for example, sexual assault survivors, but I do really hate reading about animals dying. I might have skimmed that section and not really lost anything significant, story-wise. The other (really) minor critique is that Palacio doesn't seem to use "August" vs. "Auggie" realistically, to signify anything. It seemed random sometimes, and I never really got comfortable with a middle schooler's friends calling him "August" - it just seemed unlikely, to me.

The larger issue is with the Julian Chapter. This whole book was so good on a personal, micro level. But when Palacio introduces the Holocaust in the Julian Chapter, it just seems so overwrought. I understand that we need to teach kids that that's how big, terrible things happen - a series of small, terrible things builds until it's not small anymore. But I didn't feel like it fit easily into this story, and thought it felt a bit more like a baseball bat to the head, even though had this chapter stood alone, or as a part of another story into which it was better integrated, it would have been fine, as it was beautifully written. I just didn't feel it fit - it wasn't necessary to go so big, in this particular story. Surely there are ways to teach Julian about meanness on the smaller scale on which the rest of the book operates. As it is, it seems hyperbolic and sort of like the type of moral cautionary tale that would produce eye-rolls from a lot of middle-schoolers. ...more

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Sep 18, 2017 Una rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I saw the trailer for the movie and immediately thought i need to read this book. I wasn't wrong. What a wonderful and inspirational story! I really enjoyed reading about August's life and the way the author used positivity to wrap up everything in the end. I think i needed a book like that this week and this one really delivered.

Its for sure one of the better young adult fiction novels out there right now!
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Mar 31, 2020 Julianne Dunn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-read-harder

This is the sweetest book ever. The primary theme is to Choose Kindness but it tackles school bullies, self-doubt, and empathy. August is incredibly endearing and is entering school for the first time in middle school. The narration bounces around his classmates, his sister and her boyfriend, each dealing with their own inner challenges and choose different ways to deal with them. I read it in one night and cried in sweetness several times.

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Jan 26, 2018 Dina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I listened to the audiobook. I really enjoyed how they used different voices for the different character sections. I hope the movie is at least half as good as the book. I just want to give August a big old hug. Highly recommend this one to people of all ages.

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