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