“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”
-Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Auggie Pullman is a normal 10-year old boy…on the inside. He loves Star Wars, dressing up for Halloween, and playing with his dog, Daisy. However, Auggie was born with extreme facial abnormalities. Even after numerous surgeries, Auggie still looks nothing like his peers. His face garners stares everywhere he goes.
Because his face has required numerous reconstructive surgeries, Auggie has been homeschooled by his loving and supportive family. The story follows Auggie as he attends mainstream school for the first time in 5th grade. Students and teachers alike are shocked by his appearance as he walks the halls of Beecher Prep Middle School.
Told from the perspective of eight different narrators, including Auggie, Wonder illustrates how being different affects one’s family and friends alike. R.J. Palacio does an excellent job of capturing middle school life, complete with the harsh criticism and bullying that is prevalent today. However, she also captures the compassion of children as well.
Auggie, who sees himself as an ordinary kid, yearns for his peers to see him as such. Will he be able to make friends at Beecher Prep? Will he ever fit in?
Wonder challenges readers not to judge a book by its cover…or a person by his face. It’s a story about courage, kindness, and empathy and lends itself well to important discussions between children and adults about bullying and acceptance.
Laura Bradley
Program Manager
Over the last year I read a number of books on the American Revolution. The latest of these is Sharyn McCrumb’s newest book, King’s Mountain. Set largely in North Carolina, it is well researched historical fiction and tells the story of both sides of this battle. John Sevier was primarily concerned with protecting his family from Native American attack. Yet, when faced with a threat from an arrogant British officer, he and other leaders from western North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina left their homes and families, gathered a sizable militia, and engaged the British in a battle which became a turning point in the revolution. They opposed Patrick Ferguson, son of a Scottish earl who had threatened to destroy them if they opposed the king. The names of the American leaders are now place names in North Carolina: Isaac Shelby, James Johnston, Joseph McDowell, and Joseph Winston. Sevier went on to become the first governor of Tennessee, Shelby the first governor of Kentucky. What struck me most was the fact that each of these men led other citizen-soldiers who followed them hundreds of miles across the southern Appalachians into this battle in September and October, 1780. There was no paid army, no tents, and no uniforms or boots. Provisions were minimal or non-existent, and the hardships faced were tremendous. These men were farmers and frontiersmen, using their own horses as transportation and their own cattle and cracked corn as a food supply for the army. McCrumb does an excellent job of putting the reader with them as they first seek and then do battle against Ferguson during what Jefferson called “the turn of the tide of success.” As recipients of this generosity and foresight, we have much for which to be grateful.
Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg
Maya's Notebook by Isabelle Allende
This month marks 50 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. In the last half-century much has been written about Kennedy, his presidency, his legacy, and his assassination. Based on the number of new books on JFK, it seems historians, political pundits and conspiracy theorists still have plenty to say about the man and the circumstances surrounding his death. If you would like to read more about this turning point in American history check out some of these just published books on the topic.
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
