Review by Booklist Review
A wide range of readers have embraced Auggie's story in Palacio's novel, Wonder (2012), and this picture book version stands on its own to highlight the novel's message for the youngestreaders. Addressing the audience, Auggie shares the things he likes to do, such as ride bikes and eat ice cream. He likes ordinary things; he just does not look ordinary. A multicultural group of children make fun of him, prompting Auggie and his dog, Daisy, to don astronaut helmets and take a fantasy trip across the galaxy, where the expansive view helps change his perspective. Returning to Earth, he's met by a boy who wants to be friends. Palacio's multimedia illustrations, inspired by the novel's book jacket, are a pleasant, engaging visual combination. Auggie and Daisy are solid images, while the backgrounds have a stamped quality, with colors variously faded and darkened. With a warm message at its heart maybe people can change the way they see . . . and they'll see that they're wonders too this story should inspire plenty of empathy among little ones.--Whitehurst, Lucinda Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Dispensing with the plot and multicharacter perspective of her much-lauded middle grade novel, Wonder (which also inspired the "Choose Kind" antibullying movement), Palacio focuses this picture book spin-off on the reflections of her hero and narrator, Auggie. "I just don't look ordinary," he says, and while what makes him so isn't specified, readers can see the difference between his single-eyed, featureless face (based on Tad Carpenter's cover illustration for the original novel) and Palacio's drawings of other kids. The love of Auggie's mother ("She says I'm a wonder!"), the companionship of his dog, Daisy, and his pretend play as an astronaut all help the boy momentarily escape the taunts of his peers. But he also holds out the hope, which the penultimate spread seems to affirm, that "people can change the way they see" and learn to appreciate the sentiment expressed in the title. Younger children need to hear Palacio's important message, but the wistful nostrums and flat, decorative cartooning don't fully do justice to her novel. Ages 4-8. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Auggie, from the bestselling novel Wonder (2012), returns as a picture-book protagonist.Though Auggie tries to do the normal things other kids doride a bike, eat ice cream, play ballhe doesn't look like other kids. Though it takes knowledge of previous installments in the Wonder series to understand that Auggie has serious facial deformities and has had many corrective surgeries, it is clear what Auggie endures from other kids: "Sometimes they stare at me. They point or laugh. They even say mean things behind my back. But I can hear them." His mother tells him he's a wonder; in fact, "we're all wonders," Auggie informs readers. But with no characterization and little in the text beyond inspirational messages, it's not clear what makes Auggie a wonder; he wants to be taken as he is, but readersunless they have read the other volumesnever come to know him. Borrowing the now-iconic stylized image of a nearly featureless, one-eyed, white Auggie from the original hardcover edition and employing colorful, digitally rendered art, this edition pulls the heartwarming spirit from Wonder but little of the substance. Auggie's first-person point of view is too narrow to allow for the range of voices that made the novel so rich. Palacio has perhaps mined the same material once too often. A feel-good volume lacking the wonder of Wonder. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
