Hello everyone and welcome to the Books Mandala YouTube channel where we talk about anything and everything related to books. Today we're going to talk about a popular children's book called Wonder. This is a book summary of Wonder. My name is August. I won't describe what I look like but whatever you're thinking...
it's probably worse. These are the words on the back of Wonder, a moving novel about a boy with a strange face and how he touches and affects the lives of all those around him. Now, August Pullman was by all counts a very ordinary boy.
He loved learning science, loved playing video games, and he really liked Star Wars, just like any other kid. Only, his face was different. Somehow, through no fault of his own, he had been born with a facial deformity, which was very scary, especially to other kids.
And all his life, his face had always been this barrier between him and everyone else. The book begins with August Pullman enrolling in 5th grade, in school for the first time. after being home taught by his mother his whole life. This would turn out to be a strange, scary, and wonderful thing for August and his school.
The first people he met from school was his school principal, Mr. Tushman, and two boys called Julian and Jack Will. He became good friends with Jack Will because he was nice and over time grew very close to him. Julian on the other hand was horrible to august for some reason he pretended to be nice and friendly to august when the adults were around but made vicious jokes at august's expense even boldly comparing him to darth sidious a deformed star wars villain in the middle of class the other kids weren't so nice to august either they avoided him a lot yet stared at his face when they thought he wasn't looking and talked behind his back All the time.
Things weren't quite so bad. August's teachers were very nice to him. He even made a new friend in the form of Summer, a kind girl who decided to sit with him during lunch when she saw him all alone. And so, in spite of everything, August slowly grew to love his school and be more happy with the help of his friend Summer.
and Jack will. Even the school kids slowly got more used to him. Sadly, there were still incidents like how none of them were willing to get close to or even touch August like he had some kind of disease.
During Halloween, when all the students came to the school dressed up in costumes and masks, August found Julian dressed up as this figured Darth Sidious with an ugly mask waiting for him. He was comparing August to it and making fun of him with his friends. August realized that one of those friends making fun of him was Jack Will. He overheard him saying that he would kill himself if he looked like August and that he was only friends with him because August followed him around.
Hearing those words from his closest friend was heartbreaking, and he resolved never to go to school again. Things weren't only happening in August's life though. His big sister Via had also been struggling to adjust to her first year in high school. Especially after her best friend changed personalities and started ignoring her.
This left Via a very lonely person. She didn't have any real friends left. She couldn't talk about her problems with her parents either.
They were always so worried and concerned about August. And she had never wanted to add to the stress. In fact, she had grown up doing things on her own.
Using the internet for difficult school projects, teaching herself to do her homework, organizing all of her life by herself. As fiercely as she loved her little brother, she had always felt guilty about wanting to have some of the attention and love that August always seemed to take from their parents. Even as she knew that he needed it more. Via was the only one to realize that August was lying when he told the family that he had a stomach ache and couldn't go to school anymore. She knew that something was wrong.
Via managed to get August to tell her about his problems at school. She was very sad and worried for him when he told her about the things Jack will said, but grew very angry when he told her that he wouldn't go back to school. She knew that he loved school and that he shouldn't have let a bunch of stupid kids stop him from doing what he loved. So, she blackmailed August, threatening to tell the school principal and their parents everything if he didn't go back to school. Because, the thing is, even if August didn't deserve it, these things would always keep happening to him.
And if August never learned to cope with it, he would never be treated like a normal kid, like he wanted. August's friends, on the other hand, were in the middle of an epiphany themselves. Summer realized her friends besides August were shallow and mean, only wanting to talk about boys and spreading horrible rumors about August.
From then on, she resolved to be more closer to August, hanging out with him during and after school every day. Jack Will was more upset. August had stopped talking to him, but he didn't know why.
In that time alone, he realized that he actually preferred being friends with August, rather than Julian and the other bullies, even if they were popular. The thing about Jack Will was that he wasn't as wealthy as his other classmates. Julian and his gang of bullies were always pretentious and made him feel small, especially when Julian boasted about his rich family. He had only said those horrible things about August because Julian had made him feel stupid for being friends with him.
August had always been humble, funny, and kind to him. Even letting him copy his homework, he missed his friend very much. Jack Will grew to resent Julian over time.
Things came to a head when Julian called August a freak and he couldn't help punching him in retaliation, knocking out a tooth. He was suspended. During that time at home, he reconciled and became friends with August. again. Sadly, the bullying got much worse after that incident.
Julian convinced the boys of his class to cut off and exclude Jack Will just like they did with August. Julian's mother even photoshopped August out of the class photo and tried to convince the school board to review his application again. Julian started leaving. cruel notes in August's locker, including one telling him to kill himself.
But August was happy. Him and Jack Will were friends again, and much closer than before. The two of them, with Summer, created a small circle of safety and friendship. Over the year, even the other children grew more and more indifferent towards August's face. and even started accepting him.
Even Julian's gangs of bullies were growing tired of being mean all the time. When August got hearing aids for his bad ears, he expected the kids to make a big deal out of it. Surprisingly, no one said anything. Few months before the end of the school year, the fifth grade were taken to a nature reserve for an overnight field trip. August was initially worried that Julian would find a new way to torture him there but Julian didn't come at all making him look forward to one of the happiest times of his life.
At the nature reserve, August grew close to his classmates. They went hiking and horseback riding, had wet sock fights and a campfire cookout. On their last night, they went to a fairground for a movie night with other schools.
Halfway through the movie, Jack and August went to the woods nearby to pee. There, they accidentally stumbled upon a bunch of teenagers smoking and playing. playing with firecrackers.
The teenagers were scared of August at first, but when they realized that he was just a little boy, they became nasty and savage to him. They made fun of him, shouting and laughing. They wouldn't even let them escape.
Every time Jack Will tried to walk away, they would shove him down. Scared but worried for his friend, August tried to talk with him peacefully, but that only enraged them even more. Right when things were about to get physical and they were about to do something bad to August, his previous bully classmates came to his defense out of nowhere and saved the two, getting into a fight with the older kids and escaping. When the group finally came out of the woods, there was something different about them. August's hearing aid had been lost.
and their clothes were all torn and bloody. But that wasn't it. There was a new, strange bond between them now.
Between August, Jack Will, and their bullies. They weren't enemies anymore, but friends who had survived a harrowing ordeal. Rumors of their escape spread and grew throughout the school, the story changing over and over again. They got into a major fistfight, They managed to escape through a cornfield maze and into the dark woods.
Whatever it was, things had changed for August at his school. People came up to him to ask if he was alright. The older students treated him like a little brother, and people were finally looking at him in the face and smiling, friendly.
At the end of the school year, Julian left the school for some unknown reason. August was happy about that. At the graduation ceremony, Mr. Tushman, the school principal, gave out the Beecher Ward Award. This award was to be given to recognize greatness in the student.
Greatness, he explained, is not in being strong, but in the right using of that strength. He is the greatest, whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own. The award went to August. Everyone was so happy and wanted to congratulate him, even those kids who were scared to come near him a long time ago.
In the end, August Pullman still didn't understand why he was still so loved all of a sudden, but lamented, it's like people you see sometimes and you can't imagine what it would be like to be that person, whether it's somebody in a wheelchair or somebody who can't talk. Only I'm that person to other people. To me though, I'm just an ordinary kid.
But I'll take it. I didn't destroy the Death Star or anything like that. But I did just get through 5th grade.
And that's not easy, even if you're not me. And therein lied the wonder of August Pullman. Although he was a very ordinary boy, he has had to try so hard. in spite of his situation, to be as ordinary as he is.
He kept going to school and bearing the isolation, because he wasn't going to let it stop him from doing what he loved. His quiet strength, endurance, and bravery drew people to him and encouraged kindness and tolerance in all those around him. Although the universe hadn't been very kind to him, he, in turn, had decided to be kind and open-hearted and willing to face the world.
This wasn't a big deal to him because he did it every day. This book, in the end, taught kindness and tolerance with everyone, even those who do not look like us. Thank you guys so much for watching.
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