Wonder

I have been reading R.J. Palacio's book Wonder. It's a book for kids really, published by a kids imprint of a big publishing company. My son's third grade teacher used it as a read-aloud to the class, and it features characters who are, for the most part, ten year olds. And it is the best read I have had in a long time.
 
As a busy working mom who has precious few hours to read (even my train hours tend to be dedicated to work), I am pretty picky about what I read. So, having heard about this book both through my Children's Media Association colleagues and from my son as his teacher was reading it, I was excited when he brought it home from the class library. And while I don't dare take it all over town with me, I am grabbing moments all the time to go back to it.
 
And why is THIS book worth my time? Because in chapters often not much longer than my blog posts, it makes me alternate between laughing and crying. Because, in its use of different narrator perspectives, it reminds me to listen to my kids both when they are screaming for attention and when they are not, both when they are the clear good guys and when they are not. And because it is giving me one clear example after another of both how ugly and how beautiful the world around me can be. And making me wish that each of my sentences could be so powerful. Aah, something to shoot for.
 
At the rate I have reading moments, it will take me at least a few more days to finish the book (gosh, I hope the third grade class library can wait a little longer to get it back!) It is truly amazing how a few well placed words and some really sympathetic characters can grab your heart. I hope this author gets many more chances to do that, and I encourage you to find this one if you haven't already. Even if your reading is in five-minute snippets, as it has been with me, it will be five minutes that will affect you for five hours--or five days--after. And when's the last time any of us read something that did that?