Wonder R. J. Palacio

For Russell, Caleb, and Joseph 
Contents 
Part One: August
Ordinary
Why I Didn't Go to School
How I Came to Life
Christopher's House
Driving
Paging Mr. Tushman
Nice Mrs. Garcia
Jack Will, Julian, and Charlotte
The Grand Tour
The Performance Space
The Deal
Home
First-Day Jitters
Locks
Around the Room
Lamb to the Slaughter
Choose Kind

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Lunch
The Summer Table
One to Ten
Padawan
Wake Me Up when September Ends
Jack Will
Mr. Browne's October Precept
Apples
Halloween
School Pictures
The Cheese Touch
Costumes
The Bleeding Scream
Names Part Two: Via
A Tour of the Galaxy
Before August
Seeing August
August Through the Peephole
High School
Major Tom
After School
The Padawan Bites the Dust
An Apparition at the Door
Breakfast
Genetics 101
The Punnett Square
Out with the Old
October 31

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Trick or Treat
Time to Think Part Three: Summer
Weird Kids
The Halloween Party
November
Warning: This Kid Is Rated R
The Egyptian Tomb Part Four: Jack
The Call
Carvel
Why I Changed My Mind
Four Things
Ex-Friends
Snow
Fortune Favors the Bold
Private School
In Science
Partners
Detention
Season's Greetings
Letters, Emails, Facebook, Texts
Back from Winter Break
The War
Switching Tables
Why I Didn't Sit with August the First Day of School
Sides
August's House
The Boyfriend Part Five: Justin

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Olivia's Brother
Valentine's Day
Our Town
Ladybug
The Bus Stop
Rehearsal
Bird
The Universe Part Six: August
North Pole
The Auggie Doll
Lobot
Hearing Brightly
Via's Secret
My Cave
Goodbye
Daisy's Toys
Heaven
Understudy
The Ending Part Seven: Miranda
Camp Lies
School
What I Miss Most
Extraordinary, but No One There to See
The Performance
After the Show Part Eight: August
The Fifth-Grade Nature Retreat
Known For

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Packing
Daybreak
Day One
The Fairgrounds
Be Kind to Nature
The Woods Are Alive
Alien
Voices in the Dark
The Emperor's Guard
Sleep
Aftermath
Home
Bear
The Shift
Ducks
The Last Precept
The Drop-Off
Take Your Seats, Everyone
A Simple Thing
Awards
Floating
Pictures
The Walk Home
Appendix Acknowledgments
Permissions 

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Doctors have come from distant cities
just to see me 
 stand over my bed
disbelieving what they're seeing
 
They say I must be one of the wonders
of god's own creation
and as far as they can see they can offer no explanation
 
—NATALIE MERCHANT, "Wonder"

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Part One 
August 
Fate smiled and destiny 
laughed as she came to my cradle . . . 
—Natalie Merchant, "Wonder"
Ordinary
I know I'm not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice 
cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I
guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don't make other ordinary 
kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don't get stared at
wherever they go.
If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal 
face that no one ever noticed at all. I would wish that I could walk down the street 
without people seeing me and then doing that look-away thing. Here's what I think: the 
only reason I'm not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.
But I'm kind of used to how I look by now. I know how to pretend I don't see the faces 
people make. We've all gotten pretty good at that sort of thing: me, Mom and Dad, Via.
Actually, I take that back: Via's not so good at it. She can get really annoyed when 
people do something rude. Like, for instance, one time in the playground some older 
kids made some noises. I don't even know what the noises were exactly because I 
didn't hear them myself, but Via heard and she just started yelling at the kids. That's the 
way she is. I'm not that way.
Via doesn't see me as ordinary. She says she does, but if I were ordinary, she wouldn't 
feel like she needs to protect me as much. And Mom and Dad don't see me as 
ordinary, either. They see me as extraordinary. I think the only person in the world who 
realizes how ordinary I am is me. 

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My name is August, by the way. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're 
thinking, it's probably worse.