Wonder (with guest and author R.J. Palacio)

This week on The MashReads Podcast, we talk to R.J. Palacio about her novel Wonder, which was just turned into a major motion picture staring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson.

The book follows a year in the life of Auggie Pullman, a 10-year-old boy who is starting the 5th grade. Though Auggie is a normal 10-year-old boy, he was born with facial differences resulting in numerous surgeries which have kept him homeschooled and away from his peers until now. Now, entering school for the first time, Auggie and his community must find the courage, kindness, and empathy to accept each other, despite their differences.

"The narrative we’ve come to expect and accept about middle schoolers being mean and middle schoolers being cruel and all of that is one that don’t subscribe to because, [while] kids can be mean, I’ve also experienced tremendous nobility. What I’ve seen in children is they reach out to support each other when they’re down. Kids have an innate nobility that needs to be urged on a little bit an inspired."

Then, as always, we close the show with recommendations:
R.J. recommends City of Thieves by David Benioff. “It was such a great read, it was a perfect airplane read, it was really a lot of fun.” She also recommends the Wonder movie, of course.
MJ recommends Caity Weaver’s GQ profile of Gal Gadot “The Gal Gadot Next Door.” “It’s phenomenal. Once again [Caity Weaver’s] just flexing her writing muscles and showing off.”

This week on The MashReads Podcast, we talk to R.J. Palacio about her novel Wonder, which was just turned into a major motion picture staring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson.

The book follows a year in the life of Auggie Pullman, a 10-year-old boy who is starting the 5th grade. Though Auggie is a normal 10-year-old boy, he was born with facial differences resulting in numerous surgeries which have kept him homeschooled and away from his peers until now. Now, entering school for the first time, Auggie and his community must find the courage, kindness, and empathy to accept each other, despite their differences.

"The narrative we’ve come to expect and accept about middle schoolers being mean and middle schoolers being cruel and all of that is one that don’t subscribe to because, [while] kids can be mean, I’ve also experienced tremendous nobility. What I’ve seen in children is they reach out to support each other when they’re down. Kids have an innate nobility that needs to be urged on a little bit an inspired."

Then, as always, we close the show with recommendations:

R.J. recommends City of Thieves by David Benioff. “It was such a great read, it was a perfect airplane read, it was really a lot of fun.” She also recommends the Wonder movie, of course.
MJ recommends Caity Weaver’s GQ profile of Gal Gadot “The Gal Gadot Next Door.” “It’s phenomenal. Once again [Caity Weaver’s] just flexing her writing muscles and showing off.”