“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”

First, some thoughts about the book:

From Saffron:

Auggie is a boy with a deformed face and he stands out from everyone else because of all the surgery he’s had.    It is his first time going to school. He went to Beecher Prep. He’s in 5th grade and before that he was homeschooled. For a long time, Auggie was growing out a braid in the back of his head, but three weeks into school he cut it off because people were teasing him.

Towards the end of his 5th grade year, his whole class goes on a trip kind of like the farm trip but it was not a farm and it is called The Nature Reserve. When Auggie was packing for the trip, he kept asking his mom if he should bring his favorite stuffed animal Baboo. Auggie’s best friend is Jack Will. They are the same age and in the same class.

My favorite part of this book comes at the end when Auggie wins the Henry Ward Beecher Medal for being a really good student. It also warmed my heart when Nate, Auggie’s dad, brought home a new puppy. 

P.S This was the best book I have ever read!

From Sonia:

This is how I describe Auggie;

At the beginning of the book Wonder, August Pullman is “totally, completely petrified.” In the first part of Wonder Auggie has just heard his mom and dad talking about a new school he might (if he agrees) be attending for fifth grade. When he hears about going to Beecher Prep for his first year of middle school and he knows what he would be able to do there, he finally agrees.

This is going to be hard for everyone going into the fifth grade because it’s the first year of middle school, but it’ll be even worse for Auggie. Why? Because he’s always been home-schooled by his Mom. Also, his face is not the same as the other kids going to  that school.

At the end of the book, Auggie is happy and proud after getting the Henry Ward Beecher Award at school. When his mom hugs him while they are walking home from the ceremony, she says, “I’ve seen wonders in the world but you Auggie, you are a wonder yourself.” After this, I’d imagine Auggie was feeling the love from his mom. It might have been one of the few places Auggie saw it didn’t matter how he looked. His family loved him anyway.

This happens throughout the whole book, but Auggie may have not seen it everywhere.

In other words, at the end of the book, Auggie feels proud to be him for the first time, he feels the love from the people who love him, and he feels he made friends. He saw that his Mom and Dad, Via, Miranda, Jack, and Summer were all he needed to feel happy.

Auggie hasn’t changed in an ordinary way…. He’s changed in a special way. He now knows that it doesn’t matter what he looks like on the outside, and it doesn’t matter what his exterior is like. It only matters what his interior is like. He is kind and caring. That’s what matters.

Next, some thoughts about watching the movie:

In the book, Auggie’s teacher introduced a new precept to the class every month.

Fourth graders used the precepts from the book to reflect on the experience of watching the movie.

Here are the precepts:

“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”   —Dr. Wayne Dyer

“Your deeds are your monuments.”   —Inscription on ancient Egyptian tomb

“Have no friends not equal to yourself.”   —Confucius

“Fortune favors the bold.”   —Virgil

“No man is an island, entire of itself.”   —John Donne

“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”   —James Thurber

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.”   —Blaise Pascal

“What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.”   —Sappho

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”   —John Wesley

“Just follow the day and reach for the sun.”   —The Polyphonic Spree

“Everyone deserves a standing ovation because we all overcometh the world.”   —Auggie Pullman

From Hanako:

DS4 and DM4 went on a trip to the movies, but it wasn’t as fun as we expected. There was a class (or more likely a grade) behind us in the movie theater and they were the loudest group I have ever heard in the movies. EVER! Also, there were people in front of us who were laughing, coughing (but I don’t think that’s their fault) and yelling. There was an old lady in the front of the theater and since there was so much noise, she couldn’t enjoy the movie. (That thought of empathy inspired by Saffron Zeff during a class discussion). So, the precept that fits most with this memorable event is, ”Your deeds are your monuments” because when the kids behind us were screaming, we remembered them as loud, annoying kids.

When the movie finished, some of the kids from a loud group behind us started teasing someone in my class. Luckily, someone stepped in and stood up for him. Some other people saw what was going on and helped. The precept that fits most with this is, ”No man is an island, entire of itself.” because the people who stood up for my classmate, didn’t just say,”Nope, I’m going to regret it if I get involved in that.” They helped and then everything was OK. 

From Bayo:

Deborah and Shelby’s 4 grade and Dan and Marcus’s 4 grade went on a field trip to watch the movie Wonder. When the two classes were at the movie there was another school that had 88 kids at the theater. During the movie the kids from the other school were screaming. One of my classmates politely asked them to quiet down and then they said how about you quiet down, then later in the movie the same classmate asked them to be quiet again and he said something else and the conversation escalated into them cursing at my classmate. The fight later escalated even more from cursing to calling my classmate names like crybaby since he cried when Daisy died. 

My precept was…

“ When given the choice between being right and being kind choose kind”

When my classmate said, “Can you be quieter?” the kids said, “No you can be quiet,” but they could’ve said, “Sure we will be quiet and let you enjoy the movie and we don’t want to get into an argument.” It applies to the situation because instead of them saying, “Sure we’ll be quiet,” they said, “You can be quiet.”

The thing they could’ve done is choose kind instead of being cruel. Some of the kids from both groups were not following the precept of “When given the choice between being right and being kind choose kind.”

From Bo:

I was enjoying the movie Wonder in the movie theater, enjoying it very much. I liked how it was done and it was great. I heard talking, screaming and cursing and there were some loud kids behind me. I said to the kids “I’m watching a movie can you please be quiet.” But instead they started calling me a girl, said I look like Auggie, called me curse words, called me a cry baby and said I was very dumb and stupid. But I said some mean things back like; they are dumb and shouldn’t be talking during the movie. This went on and on like this for the whole movie and kind of ruined it, but it was a great movie.

When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.

The next time….During  this, if I could re-do it I would choose kind and not tell them to be quiet. During the experience, I wanted to be right by telling them to stop, but it did not work but I continued to do it. So next time, I will try to forget they’re there and focus on the movie. I kept telling them to be quiet, but they would not stop, so I should have just let it go and not argue.

From Cy:

When we first arrived at the movie theater there were a lot of middle schoolers from another school. We all just sat down in the first three rows in front of them. When the movie started the middle schoolers all started yelling and cheering during some of the parts so it was very hard to hear. They were also not respecting some of our classmates because they were cursing at them and saying negative comments. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there was a lady laughing during some of the saddest bits which was one, very confusing because it was supposed to be sad and two, it was very rude to the audience because they were feeling emotional. The middle schoolers were being disrespectful to everyone in the audience.

The precept I chose means that you should be good to everyone, everywhere, everytime, with all that you have. The other children were not being good to us because they were not respecting the audience in the theater. They lacked respect because they were loud, used bad language, made fun of our classmates and made the movie experience terrible. In the end, they were not being good to us like they should have been. We should all learn from this experience so that when we are in a public place we should respect the space and the people in the space.

From Sebastian:

I don’t think middle schoolers should be loud like that. I should not have tried to quiet them down and make it worse. The middle schoolers should have tried to enjoy the movie like most of the people in the theater.  The middle schoolers should put themselves into our shoes and feel how it feels to us. My precept is “Just follow the day and reach for the sun.” And this quote applies to what happened because everyone involved in that should just follow the day and reach for the sun.