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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: April book: Wonder by R J Palacio
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
The Ship's book club book for April is Wonder by R J Palacio, which I will be reading along with you. It's a book I picked up because it looked interesting as my late lamented local bookshop was closing down and the bookshop owner recommended it.
If anyone is interested in joining in, questions around the 20th, as usual.
(I'm still reading and enjoying February's book, because I'm so far behind with reading.)
[ 02. April 2016, 08:39: Message edited by: Curiosity killed ... ]
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
I've read this, just need a quick skim through to refresh my memory, so I'll be joining in.
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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
I've read Wonder. I quite liked it - I found it quite believable in terms of school dynamics of 10-year-old kids. I'll join in when you ask questions.
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Landlubber
Shipmate
# 11055
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Posted
I am reading this and hope to join in.
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They that go down to the sea in ships … reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man
Posts: 383 | From: On dry land | Registered: Feb 2006
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
It's the 20th and I've actually read this in time.
Some questions for the select band who read this one; nothing special, just those I came away with after reading it. You can add your own, ignore these or reflect anything else you have in mind.
- Did you feel the story / scenario was believable?
- What about the children's reactions?
- Did you feel the book worked with the different narrators?
- Where there any characters you particularly liked or disliked?
- Did anyone else have the additional Julian chapters? If so, how did you feel that they worked?
- I wondered if this book was really aimed at children or adults and how many children are reading it. Has anyone seen a child read it?
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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gustava
Apprentice
# 15593
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Posted
For questions 1-3, basically "yes".
The most dislikeable character predictably was Julian although by the end I started feeling sorry for him because he didn't have many options. And unpleasant as he was, his mother sounded worse. My copy of the book didn't have the Julian chapter - what was revealed in that?
The biggest surprise for me was the section about Via and the pressure she was put under at the party - it seemed quite intense for only 14 year olds.
I got the feeling it was a book more for adults because a lot of the explanatory comments seemed aimed at adults rather than children, although maybe that was because it was an adult writing it. My 11 old son picked up the copy I brought home from the library and read it before I did, right through, fairly quickly and intently.
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
I've not got much to add. I read this book a while ago and haven't been able to lay my hands on a copy to refresh my memory as all the copies in the library of the school I work in are out.
The impression I was left with was that it was a feel good read, and that in real life things might not pan out quite the way they did in the book.
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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
1. Did you feel the story / scenario was believable?
In general, yes - makes sense that a child having so many medical procedures would be kept at home and that when his condition is more stable his parents would want him to go to school and try to have more of a 'normal' life, and that they would all have mixed feelings about it. I felt some of the details weren't so believable - realistically, I think the medical issues would have more of an impact on his daily functioning, and also having been so protected and not having been to school, he would be likely to be less socially adept than he is.
2. What about the children's reactions?
Yes, on the whole, I think they were realistic - though the subtle type of bullying that Julian does seems more like the way girls bully than the way boys bully. What I thought was really realistic was the way the kids gradually get used to Auggie, and how when confronted with bullies from another school, they suddenly see him as one of them.
3. Did you feel the book worked with the different narrators?
I think I would have found it a stronger, more focused book if Auggie had been the only narrator. It seemed like there were too many stories going on, and the story got a bit cluttered and disjointed. But I can see how having a variety of narrators potentially makes the story appeal to a wider audience, including to adults. And the author apparently had a moral intention to help people deal with situations of seeing a kid with a facial abnormality, so it makes sense to also show the perspectives of a variety of different people whom the readers can potentially relate to, and sympathise with.
4. Where there any characters you particularly liked or disliked?
I liked Via and Justin. Obviously I didn't like Julian. I found Summer a bit unbelievable - I didn't really get a sense of her as a person, or what was motivating her to hang out with Auggie, as they both seemed to have very different personalities and interests, and it was clearly making all her other friends reject her. There was no sense of bonding created, as there was with Auggie and Jack.
5. Did anyone else have the additional Julian chapters? If so, how did you feel that they worked?
No, I think I read this before these had been written. I would be interested to read them though. Towards the end of the novel, there were hints that Julian was in a bit of a difficult situation himself, and that his home life probably wasn't great.
6. I wondered if this book was really aimed at children or adults and how many children are reading it. Has anyone seen a child read it?
i've not seen anyone read it. It seemed kind of aimed at as many people as possible, I felt - there were bits about farts and bottoms for ten-year-old boys to laugh at, and bits for teenagers, and there were quite a lot of insights into the struggles of the parents, so that parents could sympathise. I think the many perspectives could make the book boring for, say, a boy of Auggie's age - the tone changes quite a bit when we move to Via's perspective, for instance. The moralising and sentimentalising at the end was a bit over-the-top, I thought.
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by gustava:
The biggest surprise for me was the section about Via and the pressure she was put under at the party - it seemed quite intense for only 14 year olds.
Do you mean Summer, and the Hallowe'en party where she was being pressured not to hang out with Auggie? I also thought that was rather intense. She is Auggie's age, so these are not even 14 year olds - they are 10 year olds!
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Landlubber
Shipmate
# 11055
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Posted
1. Did you feel the story / scenario was believable?
2. What about the children's reactions?
By and large, I was carried along by the story until the final award at the prizegiving, where I join Fineline - it felt overdone to me. Mind you, I think I might have written the same if the award had gone to any of the pupils; I think the moral of the tale did not need so much emphasis.
3. Did you feel the book worked with the different narrators?
Yes, I found the different voices worked and the different perspectives came across, including the different ages of the characters represented.
4. Where there any characters you particularly liked or disliked?
5. Did anyone else have the additional Julian chapters? If so, how did you feel that they worked?
I did not have the additional chapters but I think the writing drew me to sympathise (or not) where, on looking back, I imagine the author intended.
6. I wondered if this book was really aimed at children or adults and how many children are reading it. Has anyone seen a child read it?
I had not come across the book before I saw it on the list here on the Ship. My children are too old for me to imagine them reading it as youngsters. Would I buy it for nieces/nephews in a few years? Probably not, unless their parents asked me to - it would feel too much like interfering in their upbringing.
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They that go down to the sea in ships … reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man
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gustava
Apprentice
# 15593
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Posted
Do you mean Summer, and the Hallowe'en party where she was being pressured not to hang out with Auggie? I also thought that was rather intense. She is Auggie's age, so these are not even 14 year olds - they are 10 year olds!
Yes, I did mean Summer - only 10!!
Posts: 18 | Registered: Apr 2010
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Thank you everyone for your responses. I enjoyed the book, but I think Jack deserved the prize not Auggie. I also thought there were moments when it was a bit heavy handed dotting is and crossing ts with the moral message and trite in coming to conclusions.
The extra Julian chapters gave him a back story where he'd been traumatised by advertisements for a Halloween films with zombie faces before children's TV at 5, followed by trailers for a demon fairies before a film showing of Scary Fairy which led to nightmares. He did get over that, but was triggered by seeing Darth Sidious in Star Wars at a sleepover aged 8. Meeting Auggie Pullman gave him the same nightmares.
His mother isn't labelled as overprotective, but she comes over as more so in the Julian chapters, where you hear more of her campaign to remove Mr Tushman for allowing Auggie to come to the school and hear some of her conversations with others.
Julian didn't go on camp because he was suspended for the notes he sent to Auggie and Jack. The teachers had found them and intercepted some final notes, one of which read:
I bet your mother wishes you'd never been born. You should do everyone a favor - and die.
He tried to defend himself by saying Auggie and Jack had done the same, but theirs were not so nasty - the invented Beulah sending love notes.
His chapters conclude with him being sent to France for the summer and being sorted out by his paternal grandmother. He comes to terms with himself and apologises to Auggie before moving on to a different school for the next academic year.
I was wondering about young readers as it's a book I was thinking of putting into the very minimal library I'm building at work, and it's reassuring to hear that Sarasa couldn't get hold of a copy as they were all out at her work.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
I enjoyed the book, but I think Jack deserved the prize not Auggie.
Yes, I agree with this. Jack put up with a lot of crap defending Auggie, and he chose to do that. Auggie didn't choose to have his face. I suppose his choice was to continue to go to school despite bullies, but this was made a lot easier for him by Jack. You could argue that giving Auggie the prize is the kind of 'inspiration porn' that Stella Young argues against in this video - and there did seem to me to be a bit of this in the novel.
I'm not sure I'm convinced by the idea of Julian having being traumatised by a Hallowe'en thing as an explanation for his behaviour - this seems a very odd reason to bully someone so cruelly. Bullying normally happens when someone has been bullied or abused in some way themselves, and they want to regain a sense of power, and also want to punish and distance themselves from some part of themselves that they despise, because of having been bullied for it. If he'd temporarily had something on his face that resulted in people bullying him, for instance, that would make more sense.
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