Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories

by R.J. Palacio

Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of to-day. It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul; it is to live in a nutshell and to count yourself the king of infinite space. —Francis Thompson, “Shelley”

In the end, readers of Wonder know that the book has never really been about what happens to Auggie Pullman. It’s about how Auggie Pullman happens to the world.

“You know,” he said, “one of the things you learn when you get old like me is that sometimes, a new situation will come along, and you’ll have no idea what to do. There’s no rule book that tells you how to act in every given situation in life, you know? So what I always say is that it’s always better to err on the side of kindness. That’s the secret. If you don’t know what to do, just be kind.

It is always brave to be kind, but in those days, such kindnesses could cost you your life.”

“Julian,” she said softly. “You are so young. The things you did, you know they were not right. But that does not mean you are not capable of doing right. It only means that you chose to do wrong. This is what I mean when I say you made a mistake. It was the same with me. I made a mistake with Tourteau. “But the good thing about life, Julian,” she continued, “is that we can fix our mistakes sometimes. We learn from them. We get better. I never made a mistake like the one I made with Tourteau again, not with anyone in my life. And I have had a very, very long life. You will learn from your mistake, too. You must promise yourself that you will never behave like that with anyone else again. One mistake does not define you, Julian. Do you understand me? You must simply act better next time.”

We can’t just be friends when it’s convenient. Good friendships are worth a little extra effort!”

Funny how all our stories kind of intertwine. Every person’s story weaves in and out of someone else’s story.

“I mean, I’ve been nice to Auggie,” I said, “but Summer was kind.

“Just so you know,” he said. “Being nice is the first step toward being kind. It’s a pretty awesome start. I’m supremely proud of you, Charlotte.” Maybe he knew it and maybe he didn’t, but for someone like me, words like that are worth all the medals in the world.

My hope is, as we start sixth grade, as we get older and wiser, that we all learn to trust each other enough so that we can truly be ourselves, and accept each other for who we really are.