Plot Summary: This is a story about a boy August who was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder that caused his face to develop abnormally. He gets stared and pointed at whenever he goes out in public so he's been home schooled and sheltered by his parents his whole life. He is starting normal school for the first time in his life and the book covers his first school year.
My Thoughts: At first I was really enjoying this book. I loved the main character August (Auggie) and I loved his sister and her point of view and then I started not loving it so much. The author just kept going and going with the new perspectives from random characters. I usually love multiple points of view but in this book it felt like every perspective was talking about the same thing and it just got repetitive. Especially because they didn't really have distinct voices. Grammar does not make a character distinctive. (Via's boyfriend.) I loved Auggie and his sister's chapters the best and wish he would have just went back and forth between those two. Some of the character's perspectives were so short and totally pointless to the story. They were basically there to reiterate how weird looking August is. I get it. He looks weird. Enough already.
Overall it didn't feel like there was enough of a story. Half the book was spent talking about August being weird looking and the other half was actually spent moving the plot forward. So it didn't really feel like there was much to the story. Things finally started happening, and then it ended. And I wasn't a huge fan of how it ended. It was way too sappy. The whole graduation scene was like a cheesy movie. I mean who even graduates from the 5th grade? They are going to the EXACT same school next year! What is the point of that? *SPOILER* And of course now everyone wants to be his best friend and the bully that was so mean to him all year is transferring schools. What are the odds of that? It was not believable. *END SPOILER*
Also, someone please explain to me all the one eyed pictures. Everyone had two eyes. I don't understand.
Favorite Quotes: "Sometimes you don't have to be mean to hurt someone."
"I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives."
My Rating: I'd give it 3/5 stars. It was well written and there were a lot of parts I enjoyed but also a lot of parts I didn't.