RJ Palacio Meet the Author


RJ Palacio

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them.

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Hallowe'en just around the corner.

Now on BBC News, it is Time for Meet

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The Author.

RJPalacio's book Wonder is a story

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of a boy, a journey that has

enthralled readers around the world.

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Welcome.

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The beginning of the book is

startling, even horrifying. In that

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sense, you're saying to the reader:

Do you have the guts to stay with

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the story, aren't you?

I wanted to

whet their appetite. But at the same

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time, yes, sort of like, say, are

you with me? Are you in for this

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trip. It is quite a journey. It's an

emotional journey.

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It is quite an emotional journey, I

will get you to describe it but what

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you are touching on with the idea of

a deformity, so awe awful, it cannot

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be described at the beginning of the

book, you are touching on one of the

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deepest fears that people have about

how they appear?

I think in a lot of

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ways, cranio facial differences are

tough for people. There is something

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about the face being that first line

of public persona. It is your

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telegraph to the world.

So, if you have a cranial facial

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difference, you face a challenge

unlike any other, in that is how

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people perceive you. Their first

line of judgment is based on the

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face.

And the boy, August, knows this is

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going to define him ever day for the

rest of his life?

Yet he does not

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define himself as looking different.

He is used to his face. He actually

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likes it in some ways. He brusheses

his hair. He wants to looks a good

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as he can look, he is fine with it.

He understands that other people may

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be curious, and may react but he

doesn't mind that, it is more when

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people attach cruelty or people make

assertions about his character,

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based on what he looks like, that is

where he draws the line.

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You're saying in a way, that this is

a lesson in why we should not make

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judgments?

Absolutely. You have to

get to know a person before you make

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any sort of judgments.

Take us through the story.

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It is about a ten-year-old boy

called August, born with a canial

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facial situation that sets him

apart. When he is 10 years old, the

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major surgeries are behind him and

it is time for him to go to a

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school, not to be home schooled. So

the book takes us from his point of

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view through the first 5th grade

year, in the States, and then it

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switches point of view, it starts

from Augie's narrative but then into

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the perspective of his sister and

several of the other friends that he

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meets along the way in that journey

throughout the first year in school.

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The way you write is distinctive.

They are short chapters, like

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snapshots. It's a device that, I

mean it is quite natural because of

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the nature of the story but it means

that the whole story has the sense,

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almost as if you are turning a scrap

book with, you know, a different

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picture, a different situation on

each page.

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. That's a great way to put it. I

never thought of that. But they are

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like polaroid snapshots of his life.

The chapters are short. One of the

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reasons is that my target audience

is young. I know that kids like to

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keep it quick.

This is a book, that because it is

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touching on a universal theme, as we

mentioned, fear, misunderstanding,

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reluctance to look behind the

outward appearance, these are things

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that affect everybody, whether you

are in your '70s or whether you are

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10?

Right, you don't have to look

like August to be able to relate to

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the sense of social isolation or

remember your own childhood, the

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moments when a friend may have

betrayed you. These are universal

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experiences.

This is a book that makes you

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wonder, anybody wonder, it made me

wonder, how did you get the idea?

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What was the trigger for the story?

I was with my young son, I have two

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children. I was with my youngers,

three years old at the time, we

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found ourselves in close proximity

to a little girl who had a severe

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cranial facial difference. My young

social services three years old. He

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started to cry when he saw her.

Quite a natural reaction.

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Quite natural but in my haste to

shield her from seeing his reaction,

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I thought that the best thing at the

time to do was to leave as quickly

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as I could. But I realised later

from her perspective or from the

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mum's, it may have looked like I was

trying to shield my son.

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There is no easy way out.

That got me thinking about what it

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was like to face a world every day,

that does not quite know how to face

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you back.

And August, he lives with it every

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day, it is no big deal. He's learned

to cope with it. But you know that

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every time you meet somebody for the

first time, there will be this

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reaction. You almost get used to

saying don't worry, I'm fine.

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Right. And that's exactly his whole,

everything he talks about. That's

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his theme. It is like I am an

ordinary kid, it's just the rest of

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the world that does not see me that

way.

How do you explain the reaction

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to the book. It has had a huge

number of glowing review but more

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obviously than that, it seems to

grip people as a story. It is

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something that they cannot stop

reading.

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They are just fascinated by it. I

suppose that there is a sense of

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horror, as imagining yourself in

that position, despite his well

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balanced personality?

Well, I think

also, it is a very optimistic view

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of humanity. I think ultimately, as

a parent, and as, I think a lot of

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people read it, and they think that

if a boy like Augie who has been met

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with such unkindness in his life can

nevertheless manage to be kind to

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other people and find that humour

and kindness, certainly if he can do

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it, I can do it.

We spoke about the way that this

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book has come to appeal to people of

all ages but you spoke about your

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target as a reader, really, being a

very young person. What do you find

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exciting about writing for young

readers? Perhaps readers not yet in

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their teens?

I think that ten, 11,

and 12-year-olds are very, I like

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write being them and writing for

them because it's a very tender

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moment in a person's life. It's a

moment when they are transitioning

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between being very young and that

point in your life when your parents

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are making all the decisions for

you, who to play with, who to hang

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out with, what to eat and your

teachers in school are telling you

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who to sit with and all of that. I

likery writing about it as I think

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it is an interesting moment but the

theme of the book is about kindness.

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It's about how if you think about

it, if your natural default to every

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situation in life is try to be kind

about it, you can never go wrong. So

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that's sort of the message of the

book. Try to be kind, whatever you

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do and you'll be OK. So that's

really what I was trying to write

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about.

RJ Palacio, author of Wonder,

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