Reading is a wonderful way to take us outside our own experience, which in turn helps us to learn and grow. This term, the Year 6 class will be reading the novel Wonder by RJ Palacio. This is a beautiful story which helps to highlight two of the core values we have here at OLC - Compassion and Appreciation.
The novel centres around the main character August (Auggie), a ten-year-old boy with severe facial abnormalities. Little kids scream when they see him. Older kids make fun of him and call him a freak.
Auggie is home-schooled through to grade four, but after that his parents decide to send him to a private school. Wonder is the story of his grade five year, told partly from Auggie's perspective, and partly from the other kids in his life - his sister Via, her oldest friend Miranda, Via's boyfriend Justin, and Jack and Summer, Auggie's new friends at the school.
Each narrator has a distinct, completely believable voice. Palacio writes with just the right balance of humor and pathos, making each character both flawed and sympathetic. She "gets" kids -- how they think, how they talk, how they have the capacity to be both horribly mean and incredibly brave and kind. I recognise these characters, and I'm sure young readers will recognise them too. Wonder is a feel-good book with a great message, and the ending is a tearjerker in the best possible way. Stay tuned to hear what our Year 6 students think of this amazing story.
Mrs Meyer
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