Wonder move my mother's heart and it also inspires me to encourage my children to remember to look past this shell we call a body and love the soul within. It is with a warm sense of victory that I report to you that there are several characters in this gem of a book who do just that. I will encourage it's readership as long as I know parents and young people. Read this book.
Without being too verbose, I would like to reproduce an excerpt from this book that makes me want to stand up and cheer. In the words of the wonderful Mr. Tushman:
Children, what I want to impart to you today is an understanding of the value of that simple thing called kindness. And that's all I want to leave you with today. I know I'm kind of infamous for my... um... verbosity... but what I want you, my students, to take away from your middle school experience is the sure knowledge that, in the future you make for yourselves, anything is possible. If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary- the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.
I want you to read the book because I want to talk about it with you. Did you connect with the characters the way I did? Did you think it was too simple, or too sweet, or too stubbornly optimistic? In light of all of the bad in the world, Wonder reminded me about the triumph of the human spirit over adversity - and the gentle reminder to see God in everyone you meet.
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