Wonder Penguin Readers

Penguin Readers is a series of popular classics written for learners of English as a foreign language

‘My name is August. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.’

Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things – eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary – inside. But ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids aren’t stared at wherever they go.

Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life. 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?

WONDER is a funny, frank, astonishingly moving debut to read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.

Review
“What a gem of a story. Moving and heart-warming. This book made me laugh, made me angry, made me cry” (Malorie Blackman)

“The breakout publishing sensation of 2012 will come courtesy of Palacio, a New York graphic designer whose debut novel, Wonder, is destined to go the way of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and then some. Telling the story of August, a schoolboy born with an unspecified facial deformity, it is dark, funny, touching and no Tube carriage will be without a copy this year” (The Times)

“Incredibly charming, brutal and brilliant” (Laura Dockrill Observer)

“It wreaks emotional havoc . . . There is a message running through the book, most clearly voiced by an inspirational teacher, that if we were all a little kinder to one another the benefit would be incalculable. To finish it with a firm resolve to be a better person – well, you can’t ask much more of any book than that” (Suzi Feay Independent)

“When the kids have finished with this, the adults will want to read it. Everybody should” (Financial Times)

Book Description
The unforgettable, life-affirming and internationally bestselling story of August Pullman – a boy who’s desperate to blend in, but is destined to stand out because of the way he looks.