Wow. Wonder is an eye-opening journey packed full of humor, love, courage, and so many amazing discussion starters for both young adults and adults! The quality of the book was no surprise to me; I was hooked from the first "chapter" which also happened to be the first page. Within that small amount of text we are introduced to Auggie, his family, and how he doesn't feel ordinary. Throughout the chapters, which I loved how quick and short they were, the reader is taken on a roller coaster of emotions. I cried, laughed, felt terrible, was hopeful, and everything in between it seemed. Auggie is a pretty cool kid and you fall in love with his personality, want to sit beside him at lunch when it seems no one else will, and definitely hurt right along with him. The characters are so realistic which is a bonus in any book! Every person in the book feels like a real person, acts like a real dad, typical middle school hormones, and the usual high school problems. Julian is so realistic that I despise him...it shocks me when kids are so unbelievably mean to one another. And I see it in first graders! What?! 
I enjoyed how quick the "chapters" were and was quite surprised by that aspect of the book. Such short chapters seemed to move the book along quite quickly which I think is a bonus for young adults. Getting bored within the text, in my opinion, is harder to do when a book has a fast pace and things are constantly moving. Another surprise to me was how the book is broken up; I assumed that the entire book would be from Auggie's perspective (apparently I completely skipped over the PART 1 page). Instead, we hear the story from Auggie's, Via's, Summer's, and Jack's perspective in the first half. I love this! It's so different and incredibly powerful. For young adults it's important to learn how to look at situations from different perspectives and not just from your own; this book is a perfect example at how situations can come across differently based on who you are. One of the biggest examples was when Auggie was betrayed by Jack Will (did anybody else's heart break in that moment??) and it was so interesting to be able to read the story as told by Auggie and Jack. 
Speaking of that moment during The Bleeding Scream chapter, the writing is so powerful that I don't know how your heart couldn't break during it! "I don't know what Jack answered because I walked out of the class without anyone knowing I had been there. My face felt like it was on fire while I walked back down the stairs. I was sweating under my costume. And I started crying. I couldn't keep it from happening. The tears were so thick in my eyes I could barely see, but I couldn't wipe them through the mask as I walked. I was looking for a little tiny spot to disappear into. I wanted a hole I could fall inside of: a little black home that would eat me up." As I read that all I wanted was a hug from a baby, a cozy blanket, and a piece of pie. Reading this book is almost like watching Breaking Bad. Sometimes it gets so sad and depressing that you have to stop and find something that's happy. Which is why I loved that the book also had a good dose of humor in it.
In the chapter Locks, a boy named Henry is forced to sit beside Auggie and then proceeds to place his backpack in between himself and Auggie creating a wall. The students receive their locks and are instructed to practice their combinations. Henry struggles but Auggie gets his opened on the first try. I love this line from the book: "He got really annoyed when I was able to open mine on the first try. The funny thing is, if he hadn't put the backpack between us, I most definitely would have offered to help him." Yeah Auggie! One of the funniest parts of the book, to me as a fellow homeschooler, were all of the references to being homeschooled. As Auggie experienced his first year of public school I was reminded again and again of my freshman year of high school. I wasn't used to getting up at 5 am, wasn't used to homework (hellooo it was all done at home and once I was done with school for the day I was DONE), rarely had any free time anymore, the halls were crowded with so many kids, I couldn't get a snack whenever I felt like it, and YES that bell scared the crap out of me. First day of freshman year, first period, sitting in Mr. Christian's Earth Science class, and the bell rings. I literally jumped and looked around NOT KNOWING what to do or what that was. Was it a fire alarm?! Quick look at everyone else and see what is everyone else doing? So I completely related to Auggie which I found to be hilarious.
I don't even know where to start with how I would use this book in a real class. What subject would I start on?! Family, friendship, bullying, betrayal, overcoming difficult things in life? I definitely think that a discussion on betrayal would be interesting with students. If Jack and Auggie were friends why do you think Jack talks badly about Auggie behind his back? I wonder if students would defend Jack and say that maybe he felt pressured and was trying to fit in. So then you could discuss what they would do in a similar situation, what the right thing is, why that's hard, etc. I'd love to do a lesson based on Mr. Browne's monthly precepts. First of all, why are those so important to the story and do they benefit the students? Secondly, I think that would be a fun assignment to do with my own students and maybe even have them think of precept ideas that would help make their school a kinder and more enjoyable place to be. Some sort of research into Treachers-Collins Syndrome would definitely be eye-opening for the students as well as myself. But as far as projects or fun ideas I'm not quite sure yet what I would do!
Back to the book though! So far this book is amazing and I admit I already finished it and SPOILER ALERT the second half is just as good!
