Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories
By R.J. Palacio
Hi! Do you remember the book Wonder? (You can read my review of it here.) Have you ever wondered what Julian, Auggie’s best friend Christopher and Charlotte’s side of the story was? I’ve always wondered why Julian did all of the things he did to Auggie.
This book was divided into three sections for three different people’s perspectives. I don’t want to give too much away so I’m just going to tell you a little bit about how each story begins:
Julian:
Julian is actually a pretty nice kid. That’s why he got picked to show Auggie around. He was like any normal kid. In 4th grade, he loved to play with his friends and play tackle football and stuff. He was looking forward to 5th grade until Auggie Pullman came. Julian had no idea what was coming. His mom had not really given him a warning about Auggie’s face, so when he was introduced to Auggie, he was really surprised. Now here’s the thing about Julian – he had nightmares. And he had been having them. He had stopped for a while and he watched these nature videos to help calm him. But Auggie’s face made him start having nightmares again because it was so scary. If you ever wondered, this was why Julian was so mean to Auggie – he was afraid of him.
Pluto (The Christopher Chapter):
Christopher had been Auggie’s friend for as long as he could remember. Before he moved away, they had play dates every day at each other’s house. And they still face chatted. Basically, Christopher and Auggie were really good friends. But a certain morning started out like every morning. Christopher slept through his alarm clock, his mom had to go and wake him up, he seemed to never be on time to school, and he forgot a lot of things from home. So when they were already at the school, Christopher realized he had forgotten some of his school stuff. He asked him mom to go back and get it, and so she did. She told him that she would leave it at the main office. So Christopher ran off to first period.
About ten minutes before first period ended (which was Science), he went to the main office to see if his mom had dropped off his science papers yet. No such luck! So he had to have five points taken off of whatever grade he had made on his Science test. He went to his next few classes and then he had gym. He went to check in the main office before gym started and realized that his mom had not left him his science papers or his gym shorts yet. So he had to just sit there doing pushups while the rest of the class got to play games. He went to his last classes and then, during music class, he didn’t have his trombone. So, he could not play an instrument the whole time. He just had to sit there – he couldn’t do homework, he couldn’t read. All he could do was just sit there and watch the band rehearse. After his after school band class, his dad came to pick him up. He told him that his mom had been in a terrible accident.
After school and after they checked on his mom, he went home and his friends had come over. They had laughed about Auggie’s face behind Christopher when they had face chatted. They kept asking Christopher why he hung out with a freak. And that was basically calling Christopher a freak. Sometimes it’s hard to be Auggie’s friend.
Shingaling (Charlotte’s Chapter):
Charlotte was an ordinary girl who was nice, loved dancing, all of the stuff that a normal 5th grader would love. And she had the best friend, too – Ellie. But in 5th grade, not so much anymore. There had been a rumor that Amos, a really popular boy, liked Ellie, so she had gotten invited to go sit at the “cool” table at lunch. This was the end of Charlotte’s and Ellie’s friendship. All she did anymore was hang out with the “cool” girls and left Charlotte feeling kind of lonely. But this all changed when they were in a dance tryout. The leader of the popular girls named Ximena, a really nice girl named Summer and Charlotte all got picked to be in a famous auditorium in a play. They figured out the secrets of the popular girl and it turned out that she wasn’t as mean as they thought she was. She was actually pretty nice. Don’t judge people by how they look when you first see them!
Will Julian ever get a chance to redeem himself? Will Christopher ever find a way to tell Auggie how difficult it’s been being his friend? And will Charlotte ever be able to convince Ximena to not be meaner at school than she is in real life? As I always say, read the book to find out!
I recommend this book to readers who liked Wonder, for this is just some new stories from Wonder. This is actually three separate books in one (The Julian Chapter: A Wonder Story, Pluto: A Wonder Story, and Shingaling: A Wonder Story.)
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor):
There were no real scary parts in this book.
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor):
There was a little bit of romance in the Charlotte part of the book.
I give this book 5 wands.
I loved it! I always wondered what Julian’s side of the story was. Although I have to admit that Charlotte’s story was my favorite. And it was good to know what Auggie’s best friend Christopher felt like.
