Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories

After reading this book, I have come to the conclusion that it is one of my favorites. R.J. Palacio's first book, "Wonder," is hard to beat, so this book comes in a close second. While some might think that this is a sequel to the first book, it is actually just the same book, but from different points of view. I really enjoyed the different points of view because it told the same story, just from different people. Some of those people viewed Auggie in a positive way, and some viewed Auggie in a negative way. I also really enjoyed the plot. Just like in the first book, Auggie really changed so much over one school year. He became so much more confident and loved by everyone, regardless of his differences. Even as an adult, I am inspired show more by Auggie. Lastly, I like R.J. Palacio's writing style. The book is a great mixture of funny and serious. It is a great read for kids of all ages. The main idea of this book is that the inside is what matters. Even though Auggie has some physical differences that make him look different from everyone else, his personality is great. Sometimes it takes a little while to look past outward appearances, but when you do, you might find someone magical on the inside. show less

This is a follow up to Wonder, which I enjoyed. It's divided into three sections, each from the point of view of one of Auggie's friends. The first two were boys, and well told. Julian is seen as less of a jerk and a story his grandmother tells had me in tears. The second section is told from Christopher's point of view, a friend Auggie has drifted away from. The last section is written by Charlotte, and it was not as good to me. Too girly, lol. Still a good read for fans of the original though.

Despite my super mixed feelings on Wonder, Auggie really stuck with me, so when I saw that these novellas were available from the library, I decided to get some closure on Auggie's story. The Julian Chapter immediately took me back to my strongly positive feelings about Wonder: the way in which RJ Palacio captures the nuance of bullies. Not of bullying, but of bullies as people. The way that a ten year old can seriously think "Aw, shucks, but I didn't mean anything by it" as a defense to even terrible actions, which seems unfathomable to most adults. I liked the way that fear informed a lot of Julian's actions, and I liked how his parents were well-intentioned but contributory.

As the narrative of the books shifts away from Auggie and show more the events in Wonder, they lose a sense of having a center of gravity and become very light and fluffy: The Shingaling is a cute little story about Charlotte learning how to make friends across the social divides, which does really capture a tween girl social dynamic, but is more shallow. And then finally, Pluto is basically a plutoid: the shape is a little irregular with story parts sticking out -- Christopher used to be Auggie's best friend and there are lumps of flashbacks that don't add much, to the small little nugget of story about Christopher's band friends. show less

This is three short stories, each from a different child’s POV. “Wonder”, of course, is the main book from Auggie’s perspective, and these are three other kids who came into contact with Auggie in some way. Two of these children (Charlotte and Julian) are in the 5th grade when Auggie Pullman comes to their school. Auggie has a facial deformity, and it’s extreme.

Chris was a friend of Auggie’s since they were babies, but moved away a few years before the events of Auggie’s current story. But they did stay in touch, so Chris’s story follows him on a bad day at school, in addition to flashing back to memories of Auggie, then Auggie is brought in to Chris’s current day.

Charlotte and Julian (and one other kid, Jack) are show more asked to welcome Auggie to the school. Charlotte is nice enough to Auggie, but doesn’t consider him a friend, and Julian just bullies Auggie (and turns others at the school against him).

I’ve read “The Julian Chapter” before but it’s been a long time, so I decided to reread it, in addition to the other two. I liked it the least of the three, likely because Julian (despite this one being from his POV) is a little s**t (though I did like his grandmother’s story). I’m giving it (this time around) 3.5 stars (good). On checking back, I am in agreement with the first time I read this.

The other two, I thought were really good. I really enjoyed Chris’s story and it probably had the most of Auggie in it. I also really liked Charlotte’s story, but it had the least of Auggie. It followed her as her best friend ditched her to hang out with the popular girls; Charlotte herself then got a part in a big dance performance at school with two other girls. show less

This book is a companion book to the author's bestseller Wonder. It contains three short stories (really more like novellas), each narrated by a different character from the Wonder-universe: Julian, who bullied Auggie in Wonder; Christopher, Auggie's first friend; and Charlotte, who was tasked with welcoming Auggie to Beecher Prep. In that way, this book helps to flesh out the original novel even more, with additional perspectives seen. For that reason though, I would not recommend reading this book before reading Wonder.

The "problem" with this book was that the narrators are all sort of obnoxious. Julian, of course, falls into the "it was just a joke" knee-jerk response whenever he does anything cruel. A summer spent with his show more grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, helps him to see the error of his ways. The Holocaust story seemed a bit out of place, considering how it's more intense than the rest of the Wonder stories, but it was interesting and perhaps only a bigger story like that would wake up a bully. Christopher is very snarky towards his mother, but this story was well told, using just one day in Christopher's life to unfold a larger picture. Charlotte has an annoying tick in which she needs to be praised even when it's someone else's turn to be in the limelight. She is, however, the least annoying of the three characters and her story felt the most connected to the original novel, given that many of the events from that book (e.g., "the boy war") are seen again here from another viewpoint.

Multiple narrators are used in the audiobook, which helps to give each character life. I did notice, however, that the narrator for Charlotte's story pronounces the middle school director's day as "Tuchman" while all the narrators here and in Wonder said "Tushman" and that she also mispronounces the Frozen character's name as "An-na" rather than "Ahn-na." These were very minor quibbles, however. show less

I had previously read [b:The Julian Chapter|20878809|The Julian Chapter (Wonder #1.5)|R.J. Palacio|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1399502333s/20878809.jpg|40218701], but [b:Pluto|24382356|Pluto A Wonder Story|R.J. Palacio|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426542942s/24382356.jpg|43965493] and [b:Shingaling|24683167|Shingaling A Wonder Story (Wonder #1.7)|R.J. Palacio|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436234961s/24683167.jpg|44300722] were new to me as I read them aloud to my sons. We enjoyed all three novellas, but I think Pluto (about a day in the life of Auggie's oldest friend, Christopher) was the weakest, especially as it's the most loosely connected to [b:Wonder|11387515|Wonder|R.J. show more Palacio|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309285027s/11387515.jpg|16319487].

Julian's story is fantastic & entirely necessary, as I said in my original review. Charlotte's story (Shingaling) is also great, and left my sons better understanding and liking her character. (I like that the dynamics of middle school girls are examined -- different, but no less complicated than boys.) show less

I enjoyed Wonder and when I saw this book I was interested in the other characters point of view. I especially felt Julian's story was not fully realized. In the first chapter of this book he finally gets a sympathetic perspective with a little help from his French grandmother who as a young Jewish girl managed to avoid the Nazi's with the help of a special friend. This was the best story in the book and I was emotionally impacted by it. After reading it you will never view Julian in the same way again.

The second story Pluto is about Auggie's oldest friend Christopher who is only briefly mentioned in Wonder. By the time Wonder has taken place the two boys have already drifted apart. In this story Christopher comes across as annoying. He show more is very self centered and part of it stems from the difficulty of dealing with his parents separation. Through a series of frustrations Christopher grows as a person and learns some valuable lessons about family and friendship.

The third story Shingaling is from Charlotte's point of view. She is a character in Wonder who is not mean to Auggie but she is not the sort of person to stick herself out on the line for him either. Shingaling is the name of a dance she is selected to perform at school with two other girls she might not have necessarily been friends with. As she practices for the dance with them she learns that not everything is black and white. People are complex and not all good or evil as her friend Maya likes to say. You get a more sympathetic view of Charlotte as she tries to navigate the exhausting complexities of girls friendships in middle school.

I thought this book was very well done. It expands on the author's message of kindness. You can never know what is going on with someone unless you get to know them. I hope R.J. Palacio continues to write in the Wonder world. I think there are are more characters to explore and more stories to tell as lessons are learned. If you loved Wonder than this book is must read companion. show less