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.
Comments
Popular Posts
Short Stories: WHERE IS DANIEL?
The time was an early morning in the winter of 1941. Falling snow packed onto the hard labourers of Gulag 10 WLA as they begin setting off into the mines and factories somewhere in the far east. Malnourished, mistreated and muddy, the inhabitors of this typical Gulag were kept under strict control of General Victor, who gave harsh punishments to any prisoner who dared riot or worse, insult the government. It was a normal evening. The prisoners were escorted back to the Gulag through the freezing taiga by cattle carriages. They waited in line for their daily rations: Rubbery potatoes, dried bread and lime water. If one behaved well and boasted high production, he/she would sometimes be rewarded with a small knob of fresh corn, a snack the guards would gladly feast on. General Victor was feasting on a large chicken when Archie, or formally, Guard Number One burst into his room reporting misbehaviour between two prisoners. Ben (Guard Number Two) and Mile...
A LITERARY CRITIQUE OF THE WHALE RIDER, BY WITI IHIMAERA
Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider —International Edition (Reed Publishing, 2003), pp. 154. Ihimaera is arguably the most influential Maori author in existence, publishing the first collection of short stories by a Maori writer called Pounamu Pounamu in 1972. The following year, he followed suit by being the first Maori to author a novel— Tangi. However, his magnum opus is indubitably his 1987 The Whale Rider. Fifteen years later the film adaption was released, with the eminent Niki Caro as the supervising director and Keisha Castle-Hughe's entrancing performance as the protagonist. As one commentator accurately observed, "A film so specific to one area, and grounded so firmly in New Zealand and Maori culture, has enthralled audiences from different countries partly because of the universal theme of heroic triumph over adversity, but mainly because of Castle-Hughes' and [Rawiri] Paratene's stunningly natural and utterly convincin...
Air Born- J.L Pawley
In the first book of the Generation Icarus series, Air Born by J.l Pawley, we are introduced to the main characters, Tyler, Miguel, Victoria, H, Tui, Marcus and Raven who all are 17 and have just gone through their 'wing birth', a process in which they grow wings. The seven of them are searching about their heritage, how did they grow wings, why did they grow wings and who gave them this unique mutation. They are also trying to avoid two groups, one called the Evolutionary Corparation who wants to kill them for scientific purposes and the Angelists, who think the seven are angels. I really like this book beacuse it has a creative plot, which is quite similar to the Maximum Ride series, another series I enjoyed, in which several children grow wings in a lab and try to not get killed, after escaping the lab. This book was very funy, quirky with lots of action and I would absoutely recommend this.
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.
ReplyDelete