Wonder by R.J. Palacio... I finished reading it shortly after starting, and all I can think to say is wow. Wow. WOW. I had seen it on the shelves at Barnes and Noble for what seems like forever, but I never picked it up. I don't know why. But after reading about it somewhere on the internet, I thought: Hey, I should give this a shot. Then I finally purchased it.

It was so emotional. There were a couple times I had to close the book and take a couple breaths, tell my mom who sat in the same room as me how WONDERFUL Wonder is, before jumping back into it. I loved the point-of-view shifts, how you could see the story through the eyes of several key characters. The center character, August, was my favorite and I just wanted to give him a huge hug because of his sweet, innocent voice. I felt like I was there with them all, just as much part of the story as anyone else.

It's about August Pullman, who, thanks to a gene no one in his family knew existed, was born with a facial "deformity" (though no one likes that word in the story). He once hid it with a space helmet, and has since been home-schooled by his mother, but now it's time to try going to Beecher Prep for his fifth grade. A quote from this masterpiece: "I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse." For that reason, he's nervous, but there are students at Beecher Prep that might just look past what's on his outside.

Read it. Read it now! I don't care what book you're currently immersed in. This one deserves its spotlight.