The novel Wonder written by R.J Palacio tells the inspiring story of a 10-year-old boy named August (Auggie) Pullman who was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome - a medical condition which left his face disfigured and resulted in several operations. After being homeschooled for many years, his parents decide that it is time for Auggie to finally have a real school experience and experience a larger world, but Auggie is afraid to face the children's reactions to his appearance while another part of him also really wants to do 'normal' things. His parents enrol him in Beecher Middle School for the start of fifth grade. The director of the school, Mr. Tushman, introduces Auggie to a group of students before school starts, thinking this will help ease the transition. Some of the students Auggie meets are accepting and kind, most are a bit put off by him, and others are downright cruel. The book follows Auggie's first year of middle school from beginning to end. It's a year in which Auggie experiences the best and the worst of human nature and a year of emotional growth for him.
The first part of the book is told from his point-of-view, with sections told by his older sister and some of the other kids at school. This allows us to see how Auggie’s struggle to be accepted impacts on those around him. The author does a good job of creating different voices for her characters, though it is Auggie’s point-of-view which is most memorable. Auggie is a funny, brave, and caring character. He just wants to be an ordinary kid, and yet those around him can’t help but treat him differently.
I enjoyed reading this novel as it gives a realistic look at the reality that is usually not talked about in many children's books. Wonder is about a topic that is rare - about a person that is born with an unlucky syndrome - and teaches people to not judge people by the way they look, but by the content of their character. It is a bold and engaging story that makes you appreciate August's story about his struggles to live a normal life as a child.
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Great review! In the movie, Pullman appeared to be alluding to Treacher Collins syndrome when speaking of his supposed "mandibulofacial dysostosis." From my research, Treacher Collins interferes with the morphogenesis (development in the embryo) of the craniofacial bones and tissues, and often leads to a cleft palate, hearing and vision loss alongside micrognathia (an undersized jaw). I searched on Google Scholars and it is apparently caused by a mutation in the TCOF1 gene. The English surgeon Edward Treacher Collins first reported two patients with this condition in 1900, while it was more comprehensively reviewed in 1949 by the Swiss ophthalmologists Adolphe Franceschetti and David Klein. The latter is where we derive Franceschetti–Klein syndrome, which I understand to be a subtype of Treacher Collins syndrome–I read a paper which basically said it was Treacher Collins syndrome "with variable expressivity," although it was a bit too difficult and esoteric for me to understand.
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