Wonder written by R.J. Palacio

   

           Have you or someone you know ever befriended a person who is labeled, as retarded, ugly, or they don’t fit in because of a disability? Ever wondered what the person who is deemed as retarded, ugly, or disabled might be going through in their everyday life that includes getting constant stares and being ignored. Well here is a fiction book that I would recommend for you about a boy that is deformed and is considered a freak by those who see him.

The book, Wonder, written by R.J. Palacico, is about a boy name August (Auggie).  Now, Auggie is not your typical average fifth grade boy. Why? Auggie was born with a cleft lip. Basically, after Auggie was born with deformed face, the outcome was having a lot of face surgeries to make the face look normal, unfortunately for Auggie, his face looks like a zombie due to surgical scaring. Sadly, throughout Auggie’s life, he was constantly stared and ignored from children his age to adults who could not stand to look at his deformed face. During summer break, Auggie’s parents decided to stop homeschooling him and decided to admit their son to a regular school in  fifth grade (middle school). Basically, Auggie’s world has turned upside down for two reasons. First, he knew if he attended regular school for the first time where he  knew he would not look like the rest of the kids. Therefore, there would be constant staring, being ignored, and bullied. Second, he knew he would not have any friends because of the way that he looked.  Overall, that is the whole plot of the story to Wonder.

Now on to how the story was written, the story is broken up into eight parts. First, in Part One, Auggie tells his story about how he was born with a cleft lip and went through tons of face surgeries as a kid to make his face look “normal”. Next, Part Two Auggie’s big sister, Olivia (Via), tells her story about how her life is like living with Auggie. Via has always been labeled as the girl with a deformed brother at school. When she entered high school and how life is slightly better since hardly anyone there knows about Auggie.. After that, Part Three one of Auggie’s classmates and friend, Summer, tells her story about Auggie. Basically, Summer tells her story about how she met Auggie and how she sees Auggie as a great friend. Following that, Part Four is told by another classmates and friend of Auggie’s, Jack Will. Overall, Jack Will tells his story about how he and Auggie met and how they eventually became friends. Right after that, in Part Five, Via’s boyfriend, Justin, tells his story about dating Via and meeting Auggie for the first time.  Afterward, in Part Six  Auggie tells more about himself, again. Towards the end, Part Seven, Via’s ex-best friend, Miranda, tells about how she lied at summer camp (as a junior counselor) about how Auggie was her brother. Also, how she and Via were no longer friends. Last but not least, in Part Eight, Auggie tells is story about how his first  year went overall attending regular school.   

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Wonder because I loved how R.J. Palacio developed each character into her book. Each character had their own way of telling their own version and story of Auggie and how he has made an impact in their lives. Therefore, if you enjoy an overall feel good book about the main character that looks different from everybody else but can make a huge impact on them, then I suggest you buy/borrow this book, read it, and then wait for the movie to hit theaters this fall. 

Here is a link to IMDB about the movie Wonder: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543472/

Trivia Questions: 

1) What happened at Auggie's school that made him want to quit going to school? Why did he go back? 

2) Why didn't Via not want to tell her family about being in the school play? 

3) What was the number one personality trait that everyone liked about Auggie? 

Palacio, R. J. Wonder. New York : Knopf, 2012. Print.

"Wonder (2017) ." IMDB. IMDB.com, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. 27 July 2017. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543472/>.

Comparing the US and UK Version of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban written by J.K. Rowling

 As you know, I have already compared the first and second books of Harry Potter in both versions of the U.K. and the U.S. (that are of course written by J.K. Rowling) so make sure you go back in my other posts to see them. I'll just tell you now, story wise nothing has changed, same story line through out the book, however the texts have changed since J.K. Rowling and the book publishing companies Scholastic (U.S.) and Bloomsburry (U.K.).

***SPOILER ALERTS***
                                                                             



                                                                 

U.K. book cover                                                           U.S. book cover

                                                 
                   see how much smaller the U.K. book (top) is than the U.S. book (bottom)



   The obvious comparisons that I have been saying over the last two posts while comparing the HP books:

1) The spacing is still different, U.K. version does not double space unlike the U.S. version so of course Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban U.K. version is smaller than the U.S. version since it has 317 pages and U.S. version has 435 pages because it uses double spacing. I say sometimes more than double spacing.

2) There is no period after the words Mr or Mrs in the U.K. version unlike U.S. version where we Americans must put a period after the words Mr. or Mrs. (I know the U.K. and the U.S. have different opinions when it comes to writing). Also, the spelling of the word Halloween is different, the U.S. writes it as such: Halloween. However, in the U.K. version, it is spelled as such: Hallowe'en.

3) In the U.S. version there are still pictures at the beginning of each chapter unlike the U.K. version (I wonder why).

4) There is a Table Of Contents in the U.S. version and not in the U.K. version (again, I don't know why).

5) The font in the U.S. version is of course fancier than the U.K. version. My guess it is that way because Scholastic (a well known book publishing company in the U.S.) likes to show how the characters are portrayed in the book unlike the U.K. version. For example, if you look at the letter that Harry Potter's friend, Hagrid, sent to Harry's other friend, Hermione, you can see that in the U.S. version the font is bold and also it shows tear drops on it representing that he is actually crying while writing his letter about his beloved hippogriff, Buckbeak.

U.K. font                                                                          U.S. font

   Now I that I had covered the same comparisons in my last two posts of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets; let's compare the differences that I have noticed in Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban:

1) In chapter 2 Aunt Marge's Big Mistake

 The scene is:

When Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge, who is Harry Potter's aunt, comes to town for a visit. Uncle Vernon offers Marge some brandy (an alcoholic drink), Marge does change the text around in the books when she does accept the drink and says:

U.K. - "Just a small one. . . a bit more. . . that's the boy." (Rowling, 26)

U.S. - "Just a small one. . . a bit more. . . that's the ticket" (Rowling, 27)

2) In Chapter 5 The Dementor

The scene is:
Once Harry and Hermione arrived at Hogwarts Professor McGonagall wanted to see Harry to make sure he was all right since he encountered a dementor on the Hogwarts train. Next, she wanted to see Hermione so she can secretly give her a Time-Turner so she can be at her multiple classes at once, you'll find out later in chapter Twenty-One titled Hermione's Secret about the Time-Turner. So anyways in the U.K. and the U.S. they use the terms differently for schedule.

U.K. - timetable

U.S. schedule

***If I have all ready compared this in one of my other Harry Potter posts, then please find it somewhere in your hearts to forgive me*** 

Some time in the future I will be comparing the U.K. and U.S. versions of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire so please stay tuned.


ROWLING, J. K. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban. New York: ARTHUR A. LEVINE, 1999. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban. London: Bloomsbury, 1999. Print.

According to the U.S. version of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, the publishing company Arther A. Levine is an imprint of the book publishing company Scholastic Inc.