WONDER

Auggie Pullman starts fifth grade at a mainstream school for the first time in this novel, after a childhood shaped by facial differences - and rather than staying locked in Auggie's head the whole way through, R.J. Palacio hands chapters to his sister Via and several classmates, so the story of how a school treats a kid who looks different gets told from multiple angles. Knopf published it in 2012, hardcover, for ages 8 to 12, and it's the book that started what's since become known as the Choose Kind movement.

Palacio doesn't soften the bullying or the isolation Auggie faces, which is part of why the friendships and family support that do show up land as earned rather than easy. Splitting the narration between Auggie and the classmates around him is what makes the book work for two different readers at once: the kid who already knows what it's like to be stared at, and the kid who's never had to think about it before. Either way, it's built to start a conversation that carries on well past the last page, in the classroom or at the dinner table.