Film and Novel Review of ‘Wonder’

After reading and going to see ‘Wonder’ in the cinema, we all wrote a comparative review of the film and novel in class. Kaitlin A. wrote a particularly good piece and it is typed up below.

Wonder

Wonder is a book and a film (written by R.J. Palacio) about a boy with facial abnormalities, called August or Auggie for short. He has a difficult life. He gets lots of unwanted attention, and I feel that nobody should get treated this way. His family goes through a lot and the story line is very emotional. His mum suggests that he should go to school however he has a hard time. He makes two friends called Summer and Jack as well as making enemies. Though, on Halloween, Jack suddenly turns on him and August wonders if he really was his friend at all. The part that made me feel really upset was after the fight in the woods at Spring Camp when Auggie walks down to the river and children he has never met call him all sorts of nasty names. Although it has some emotional parts, it ends happily. The book and film have the same message running through them: Be Kind.

The film has a few differences to the novel. For one, the movie is different that they watch at the Spring Camp. Another is that they don’t get a new dog after Daisy dies. Auggie also doesn’t go and get a hearing aid from the doctor. There are also lots of similarities too. For one, the story is still told from different people’s points of view, which I’m glad they did because that was one of the reasons I liked the book so much. The dog does get an illness and dies, but more subtle than in the book. They also include the 7th graders’ fight again August and Jack.

I don’t know whether I like the novel or the film more. I liked the novel because it included everything that the film didn’t. I also liked imagining everything happening. However I liked the film because you could see everything and what the characters looked like.