“Shall we make a new rule of life…always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?” (299) Just the other day, we were talking at work about the hardest times for kids as they grow up. I said, unequivocally, that middle school was the worst for me. I didn’t have a particularly bad time of it, but I think there was a reason I had a spate of migraines during middle school. Middle school kids have an astounding capacity for cruelty. August Pullman, […]
Wonder
August “Auggie” Pullman has a facial deformity that attracts a lot of unwanted attention. He’s been home schooled through fourth grade and is going to start school at Beecher Prep for fifth grade. Throughout the year, he and his fellow fifth graders learn a lot about growing up, being kind, and standing up for what’s being right. On a personal level, Auggie and his family learn how to adjust their lives as their youngest member comes into his own. The story is engrossing, and frankly […]
“I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”
So this book is probably skewed towards middle schoolers more than the typical teenagers I think of when I think of YA. But I also think it should be required reading for just about anyone. It’s a wonderful story and could teach just about anyone how to respect other people a little bit better. “Kinder than is necessary. Because it’s not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed.” Auggie Pullman is about to start 5th grade at a brand new school, and […]
A much-hyped middle-grade book that wasn’t my cuppa, but still worth the read.
My library book club is reading R.J. Palacio’s Wonder for March, which has been on my to-read list for several years now. I like reading young adult and middle-grade fiction, because I get a sense of what kids read and what they like. I’ll be interested to hear how my peers found Wonder, because I just finished it yesterday and am processing a whole bunch of thoughts. Wonder is the story of August (or Auggie) Pullman, a ten-year-old boy with craniofacial anomalies, starting with a […]