0:00:00 > 0:00:03them.
0:00:03 > 0:00:12Hallowe'en just around the corner. Now on BBC News, it is Time for Meet
0:00:12 > 0:00:23The Author. RJPalacio's book Wonder is a story
0:00:23 > 0:00:27of a boy, a journey that has enthralled readers around the world.
0:00:27 > 0:00:37Welcome.
0:00:45 > 0:00:51The beginning of the book is startling, even horrifying. In that
0:00:51 > 0:00:55sense, you're saying to the reader: Do you have the guts to stay with
0:00:55 > 0:01:03the story, aren't you?I wanted to whet their appetite. But at the same
0:01:03 > 0:01:08time, yes, sort of like, say, are you with me? Are you in for this
0:01:08 > 0:01:13trip. It is quite a journey. It's an emotional journey.
0:01:13 > 0:01:19It is quite an emotional journey, I will get you to describe it but what
0:01:19 > 0:01:24you are touching on with the idea of a deformity, so awe awful, it cannot
0:01:24 > 0:01:29be described at the beginning of the book, you are touching on one of the
0:01:29 > 0:01:36deepest fears that people have about how they appear?I think in a lot of
0:01:36 > 0:01:40ways, cranio facial differences are tough for people. There is something
0:01:40 > 0:01:46about the face being that first line of public persona. It is your
0:01:46 > 0:01:52telegraph to the world. So, if you have a cranial facial
0:01:52 > 0:01:56difference, you face a challenge unlike any other, in that is how
0:01:56 > 0:01:59people perceive you. Their first line of judgment is based on the
0:01:59 > 0:02:05face. And the boy, August, knows this is
0:02:05 > 0:02:10going to define him ever day for the rest of his life?Yet he does not
0:02:10 > 0:02:15define himself as looking different. He is used to his face. He actually
0:02:15 > 0:02:21likes it in some ways. He brusheses his hair. He wants to looks a good
0:02:21 > 0:02:28as he can look, he is fine with it. He understands that other people may
0:02:28 > 0:02:33be curious, and may react but he doesn't mind that, it is more when
0:02:33 > 0:02:36people attach cruelty or people make assertions about his character,
0:02:36 > 0:02:40based on what he looks like, that is where he draws the line.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45You're saying in a way, that this is a lesson in why we should not make
0:02:45 > 0:02:49judgments?Absolutely. You have to get to know a person before you make
0:02:49 > 0:02:54any sort of judgments. Take us through the story.
0:02:54 > 0:03:06It is about a ten-year-old boy called August, born with a canial
0:03:06 > 0:03:13facial situation that sets him apart. When he is 10 years old, the
0:03:13 > 0:03:16major surgeries are behind him and it is time for him to go to a
0:03:16 > 0:03:21school, not to be home schooled. So the book takes us from his point of
0:03:21 > 0:03:27view through the first 5th grade year, in the States, and then it
0:03:27 > 0:03:34switches point of view, it starts from Augie's narrative but then into
0:03:34 > 0:03:37the perspective of his sister and several of the other friends that he
0:03:37 > 0:03:42meets along the way in that journey throughout the first year in school.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47The way you write is distinctive. They are short chapters, like
0:03:47 > 0:03:52snapshots. It's a device that, I mean it is quite natural because of
0:03:52 > 0:03:56the nature of the story but it means that the whole story has the sense,
0:03:56 > 0:04:01almost as if you are turning a scrap book with, you know, a different
0:04:01 > 0:04:03picture, a different situation on each page.
0:04:03 > 0:04:11. That's a great way to put it. I never thought of that. But they are
0:04:11 > 0:04:16like polaroid snapshots of his life. The chapters are short. One of the
0:04:16 > 0:04:20reasons is that my target audience is young. I know that kids like to
0:04:20 > 0:04:25keep it quick. This is a book, that because it is
0:04:25 > 0:04:32touching on a universal theme, as we mentioned, fear, misunderstanding,
0:04:32 > 0:04:38reluctance to look behind the outward appearance, these are things
0:04:38 > 0:04:42that affect everybody, whether you are in your '70s or whether you are
0:04:42 > 0:04:4910?Right, you don't have to look like August to be able to relate to
0:04:49 > 0:04:54the sense of social isolation or remember your own childhood, the
0:04:54 > 0:04:58moments when a friend may have betrayed you. These are universal
0:04:58 > 0:05:02experiences. This is a book that makes you
0:05:02 > 0:05:06wonder, anybody wonder, it made me wonder, how did you get the idea?
0:05:06 > 0:05:12What was the trigger for the story? I was with my young son, I have two
0:05:12 > 0:05:19children. I was with my youngers, three years old at the time, we
0:05:19 > 0:05:24found ourselves in close proximity to a little girl who had a severe
0:05:24 > 0:05:27cranial facial difference. My young social services three years old. He
0:05:27 > 0:05:32started to cry when he saw her. Quite a natural reaction.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Quite natural but in my haste to shield her from seeing his reaction,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40I thought that the best thing at the time to do was to leave as quickly
0:05:40 > 0:05:45as I could. But I realised later from her perspective or from the
0:05:45 > 0:05:49mum's, it may have looked like I was trying to shield my son.
0:05:49 > 0:05:55There is no easy way out. That got me thinking about what it
0:05:55 > 0:06:00was like to face a world every day, that does not quite know how to face
0:06:00 > 0:06:04you back. And August, he lives with it every
0:06:04 > 0:06:09day, it is no big deal. He's learned to cope with it. But you know that
0:06:09 > 0:06:14every time you meet somebody for the first time, there will be this
0:06:14 > 0:06:18reaction. You almost get used to saying don't worry, I'm fine.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22Right. And that's exactly his whole, everything he talks about. That's
0:06:22 > 0:06:28his theme. It is like I am an ordinary kid, it's just the rest of
0:06:28 > 0:06:32the world that does not see me that way.How do you explain the reaction
0:06:32 > 0:06:37to the book. It has had a huge number of glowing review but more
0:06:37 > 0:06:41obviously than that, it seems to grip people as a story. It is
0:06:41 > 0:06:43something that they cannot stop reading.
0:06:43 > 0:06:48They are just fascinated by it. I suppose that there is a sense of
0:06:48 > 0:06:53horror, as imagining yourself in that position, despite his well
0:06:53 > 0:06:58balanced personality?Well, I think also, it is a very optimistic view
0:06:58 > 0:07:05of humanity. I think ultimately, as a parent, and as, I think a lot of
0:07:05 > 0:07:12people read it, and they think that if a boy like Augie who has been met
0:07:12 > 0:07:18with such unkindness in his life can nevertheless manage to be kind to
0:07:18 > 0:07:23other people and find that humour and kindness, certainly if he can do
0:07:23 > 0:07:27it, I can do it. We spoke about the way that this
0:07:27 > 0:07:31book has come to appeal to people of all ages but you spoke about your
0:07:31 > 0:07:37target as a reader, really, being a very young person. What do you find
0:07:37 > 0:07:42exciting about writing for young readers? Perhaps readers not yet in
0:07:42 > 0:07:49their teens?I think that ten, 11, and 12-year-olds are very, I like
0:07:49 > 0:07:53write being them and writing for them because it's a very tender
0:07:53 > 0:07:57moment in a person's life. It's a moment when they are transitioning
0:07:57 > 0:08:00between being very young and that point in your life when your parents
0:08:00 > 0:08:05are making all the decisions for you, who to play with, who to hang
0:08:05 > 0:08:08out with, what to eat and your teachers in school are telling you
0:08:08 > 0:08:14who to sit with and all of that. I likery writing about it as I think
0:08:14 > 0:08:19it is an interesting moment but the theme of the book is about kindness.
0:08:19 > 0:08:24It's about how if you think about it, if your natural default to every
0:08:24 > 0:08:29situation in life is try to be kind about it, you can never go wrong. So
0:08:29 > 0:08:34that's sort of the message of the book. Try to be kind, whatever you
0:08:34 > 0:08:38do and you'll be OK. So that's really what I was trying to write
0:08:38 > 0:08:47about. RJ Palacio, author of Wonder,