R.J. Palacio: Hi. This is R. J. Palacio, the author of Wonder. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about how I came to write Wonder and then I'll read you a brief excerpt from the book. The inspiration for Wonder came about from a chance encounter I'd had several years ago with a little girl outside an ice cream store and it was a beautiful summer day. My older son had gone inside the ice cream store to get us some milkshakes, while my younger son, who was still in a stroller and I waited outside on the bench in front of the store. At a certain point I realized that I was sitting next to this little girl who had a very severe facial disfigurement.

She was with her mother and another child, either a sibling or a friend, and they were just talking casually among themselves. I admit that I kind of panicked because I knew that my younger son who was busy playing with a toy in the stroller and hadn't noticed her yet, would react badly when he did look up. He was the kind of little boy who was very oversensitive to certain kinds of things, and in fact on Halloween, we'd actually had to take him inside the house because he was so traumatized by the scary masks. I also wasn't sure how my older son would react when he came out of the store. So I started getting ready to leave hoping I could get up subtly without drawing attention to myself and walk away without my son even noticing the girl.

I was so afraid that he would say or do something that would hurt this little girl's feelings. As I got up to leave, my older son came out of the store carrying the three milkshakes, my younger son looked up and I could tell the moment his eyes actually registered on her face, they opened so wide, I got up like a bee had just stung me and I spun the stroller around so the little girl wouldn't see him as he started to cry. And I grabbed my oldest son by the arms to pull him toward me, which unfortunately caused the three milkshakes he was carrying to fly out of his hands.

And, as I was pushing my now hysterical younger son away and pulling my very confused older son behind me, I heard the voice of this little girl's mom say, in as calm and sweet a voice you could possibly imagine, "Okay, guys, I think it's time to go." And at that moment, I was just so filled with admiration for her, they must have gone through scenes like that a dozen times a day. For the rest of the day, I couldn't stop thinking about it. What I could have done differently, how could I have done better? That night, the song Wonder came on the radio and though I'd heard that song a million times before, it suddenly took on a very different meaning to me.

The optimism of that song, which is about a child with special needs, and the joyfulness gave me great hope that this little girl would triumph in life despite encounters like the one she just had with me today. I started writing the book that very night. I made it from the point of view of a little boy because I have sons. I made it take place in the fifth grade because my older son had just finished that grade and it was all still very fresh in my mind. It's so expected that kids will be mean to each other at that age, that any act of kindness by a 10 year old takes on almost heroic proportions. I wanted to write something that would awaken the desire in kids to try and be better than our expectations of them. Be kinder than necessary is the message of the book. Now, I will read you an excerpt from the book.

"Part One. August. Chapter One: Ordinary.

I know I'm not an ordinary 10 year old kid, I mean, sure I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream, I ride my bike, I play ball, I have an Xbox, stuff like that makes me ordinary, I guess, and I feel ordinary inside. But I know ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go. If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all. I would wish that I could walk down the street without people seeing me and then doing that look away thing. Here's what I think. The only reason I'm not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way."