"When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind."

3.5 stars

Official book description:
August Pullman wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things. He eats ice cream. He plays on his Xbox. He feels ordinary – inside.

But Auggie is far from ordinary. Ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go.

Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life, in an attempt to protect him from the cruelty of the outside world. Now, for the first time, he’s being sent to a real school – and he’s dreading it. All he wants is to be accepted – but can he convince his new classmates that he’s just like them, underneath it all?

This book has been on my TBR list for years and years, but this semester, we’re teaching the book in 9th grade English, and I can’t very well teach the kids a book I haven’t read myself. So I spent a pleasant weekend in January reading it, and can see why it’s gained such popularity and critical acclaim. It’s a book that deals with a lot of important subjects, like living with a deformity, both personally or as a family member, bullying, friendship, loneliness and otherness. While August is the main character of the book and the first POV character we meet, there are also sections where other people who interact with him, his sister Via (Olivia), her boyfriend Justin, Auggie’s friends Jack and Summer. We get to see not only how Auggie perceives the world and the way people treat him and interact with him, but also how it affects those around him.

This is a middle-grade book, so it’s not like the characterisations of all the various people we meet are terribly deep, nuanced and subtle. While a lot of difficult topics are covered, I find I have to agree with some of the reviews I’ve seen, that point out that some of the ways in which the book approaches serious matters is a bit simplistic and not necessarily as nuanced as one might have wished. Because the POV characters are children, some of their thoughts and observations are a bit naive.

Full review on my blog.