BORN with several genetic abnormalities, 10-year-old August Pullman, called Auggie, dreams of being "ordinary." Inside, he knows he's like every other kid, but even after 27 surgeries, the central character of "Wonder" bears facial disfigurations so pronounced that people who see him for the first time do "that look-away thing" - if they manage to hide their shock and horror. "Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse," he says of his face as the book begins. He's used to the stares and mean comments, but he's still terrified to learn that his parents have gotten him into middle school at Beecher Prep and want him to go there rather than be home-schooled. But they persuade him to give it a try -and by the time this rich and memorable first novel by R. J. Palacio is over, it's not just Auggie but everyone around him who has changed. Stories about unusual children who long to fit in can be particularly wrenching. At their core lurks a kind of loneliness that stirs primal fears of abandonment and isolation. But Palacio gives Auggie a counterweight to his problems: He has the kind of warm and loving family many "normal" children lack. Among their - and the book's - many strengths, the Pullmans share the, um, earthy sense of humor that all kids love. Over the years his parents, Nate and Isabel, have turned the disturbing story of Auggie's birth into high comedy involving a flatulent nurse who fainted at the sight of him, and they persuade him to go to Beecher by riffing hilariously on the name of the school's director, Mr. Tushman. It also helps that the Pullmans' world - they live in a town house in "the hippie-stroller capital of upper Upper Manhattan" - is the privileged, educated upper-middle class, that hotbed of parents who hover and micro-manage the lives of their perfectly fine children. It's somehow weirdly satisfying to see what happens when something actually alarming enters this zone of needless anxiety. Palacio carves a wise and refreshing path, suggesting that while even a kid like August has to be set free to experience the struggles of life, the right type of closeness between parents and children is a transformative force for good. But it's Auggie and the rest of the children who are the real heart of "Wonder," and Palacio captures the voices of girls and boys, fifth graders and teenagers, with equal skill, switching narrators every few chapters to include Auggie's friends and his teenage sister, Via, who wrestles with her resentment, guilt and concern. "We circle around him like he's still the baby he used to be," she observes ruefully. And we see the vicious politics of fifth-grade popularity played out as the class bully targets Auggie and starts a campaign to shun him, culminating in an overnight school trip that turns scary and shuffles the social deck in ways no one could have imagined. While I sobbed several times during "Wonder," my 9-year-old daughter - who loved the book and has been pressing it on her friends - remained dry-eyed. She didn't understand why I thought Auggie's situation might upset her. "I like kids who are different," she said. I realized that what makes her cry are stories in which children suffer because they have missing or neglectful parents and no one to take care of them. Perhaps Palacio's most remarkable trick is leaving us with the impression that Auggie's problems are surmountable in all the ways that count - that he is, in fact, in an enviable position. Maria Russo is a frequent contributor to the Book Review.

(Fiction. 8-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Auggie Pullman was born with severe facial deformities-no outer ears, eyes in the wrong place, his skin "melted"-and he's learned to steel himself against the horrified reactions he produces in strangers. Now, after years of homeschooling, his parents have enrolled him in fifth grade. In short chapters told from various first-person perspectives, debut author Palacio sketches his challenging but triumphant year. Though he has some expectedly horrible experiences at school, Auggie has lucked out with the adults in his life-his parents love him unconditionally, and his principal and teachers value kindness over all other qualities. While one bully manages, temporarily, to turn most of Auggie's classmates against him (Auggie likens this to becoming the human equivalent of "the Cheese Touch," a clever Diary of a Wimpy Kid reference), good wins out. Few first novels pack more of a punch: it's a rare story with the power to open eyes-and hearts-to what it's like to be singled out for a difference you can't control, when all you want is to be just another face in the crowd. Ages 8-12. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

August, nicknamed Auggie, is a 10-year-old with a facial deformity that causes others to avoid and even shun him. When he enters a mainstream school, Auggie must learn to cope with difficult new situations and new people. The narrative is told from the perspectives of Auggie, his new friends, his sister, and her boyfriend. Steele's Auggie is raspy, quick, and delivered in a conversational tone, while Rudd and Podehl give a full range of vocal performances that bring the remaining characters to full light. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

"The universe was not kind to Auggie Pullman." Auggie was born with a facial anomaly: his face sags; his eyes are asymmetrical, below the expected placement, and bulging; his oversized nose protrudes; and he lacks ears, eyebrows, eyelashes, and cheekbones. Having been homeschooled all his life, this fifth-grader is now entering school for the first time -- going, as his dad says, "like a lamb to the slaughter." Auggie is used to people looking away, or even recoiling, when they see him, and he's well aware of some of the names he's called: "Rat boy. Freak. Monster. Freddy Krueger. E.T. Gross-out. Lizard face. Mutant." First novelist Palacio shows readers Auggie's feelings and, in various chapters from multiple narrators (his sister and various classmates, for example), how others react to him. But there's also a lot of telling; as in, we're told Auggie is a lot of fun. What we're shown is that he makes a host of self-depreciating remarks, but these comments don't a fun guy make, and they render his characterization fairly one-dimensional. As Auggie seeks friends, we are told how desperately he wants them but little, beyond being the object of kindness, of what he might offer in return. Still, this novel is a heartbreaker, and one that for many readers may redefine bravery in the face of adversity. betty carter (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

*Starred Review* Kids' books about befriending somebody different could fill a library. But this debut novel rises to the top through its subtle shifting of focus to those who are normal, thereby throwing into doubt presumptions readers may have about any of the characters. Nominally, the story is about 10-year-old August, a homeschooled boy who is about to take the plunge into a private middle school. Even 27 operations later, Auggie's face has what doctors call anomolies; Auggie himself calls it my tiny, mushed-up face. He is gentle and smart, but his mere physical presence sends the lives of a dozen people into a tailspin: his sister, his old friends, the new kids he meets, their parents, the school administrators the list goes on and on. Palacio's bold move is to leave Auggie's first-person story to follow these increasingly tangential characters. This storytelling strategy is always fraught with peril because of how readers must refresh their interest level with each new section. However, much like Ilene Cooper's similarly structured Angel in My Pocket (2011), Palacio's novel feels not only effortless but downright graceful, and by the stand-up-and-cheer conclusion, readers will be doing just that, and feeling as if they are part of this troubled but ultimately warm-hearted community.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist