Skip to main content

November 2015



WONDER (R.J. PALACIO)


This book lives up to its name.  Totally.  I had heard about it and seen it kicking around at my previous school, and then the Grade 5 teacher at my current school requested it.  Good choice - all school libraries SHOULD HAVE THIS BOOK.  Yes the CAPS is for EMPHASIS.

August (Auggie) was born with some pretty serious facial defects.  He gets stared at - like, most of the time.  And it's not "nice" staring, it's staring in shock and horror, can't-believe-what-I'm-seeing staring.  Auggie for the most part has learnt to ignore it, but it still gets under his skin, and still makes him dread going into situations with new people.

So the idea of going to school for the first time? Utterly terrifying.  LOTS of new people, everywhere, and he is stuck with them for hours a day, and they will all stare, and comment, and pretend to look away, and talk about him behind his back.  Auggie knows exactly what it will be like and he is not sure he can bear it...  but will it really be that bad?

This is a book about what it is like to be constantly judged on your appearance, by kids and adults alike.  This is a book about how horrible kids can be at that age.  This is a book about overcoming what others think of you.  This is a book about how wonderful kids can be at that age.  100% yep.







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using librarian skills to uncover a network of dodgy shopping sites!

In all my posts over the years I'm not sure if I ever mentioned I am an avid steampunker.  Like many of my quirky fellow librarians, I love a good dress up and recently found myself searching for a great pair of boots to go with the Steampunk Aviator Superhero costume I'm assembling (trust me, it will work!). One evening whilst idly thumbing through Pinterest I found a picture of these undeniably AWESOME combat-boot style boots.  I followed the link to the website ( www.chichola.com ) and although it didn't look dodgy and offered PayPal, I am a cautious online shopper and always check the customer reviews first.  They were 1000% abysmal.  Like the kind of reviews that say SCAM, THEFT and CAN I LEAVE 0 STARS.  So despite loving the shoes, I was definitely not parting with my money on this occasion. Fast forward a couple of months and I see an ad for Victorian-style cosplay boots in my Insta feed.  Did I mention that I am an avid steampunker?  Because seriously, th
24 comments
Read more

The Trials of Youthful Exuberance

Attracting youth to the library is such a THING. Endlessly discussed across the ages, we as librarians want to connect positively with this elusive subset of the population - draw them in with our smiles and our warmth, instill in them a lifelong love of reading and be that “third place” that everyone was waxing lyrical about a wee while back. If only we could get them to start talking to us, if only we could get them to read a book or two, if only we could get them to see that we’re actually really cool! (and that my friends, is the problem right there 😆). Our library's youth space was about as inspiring as cold, one day old oatmeal, so we recently underwent a total revamp.  We now have funky chairs and bookend art, traditional games, gaming consoles and colouring stations - all these things have merged to create a much better vibe in that area, but has it attracted youth? Well yeah, but it's sort of attracting everyone at the moment because it's such a nice area
1 comment
Read more

It only takes a second (ment)

What the hell is a secondment? Some people I have chatted to have no idea what I'm talking about (and I also discovered that some spell-check utilities don't even recognise the word) so I thought I would clear the confusion by ripping a definition straight from Merriam-Webster: Definition of secondment plural -s : the detachment of a person (such as a military officer) from his or her regular organization for temporary assignment elsewhere. So if you just substitute "library services officer" for "military officer" you have an explanation of my situation! Being a qualified Librarian can take you in so many different directions. One of the reasons I chose the tag "Ambidextrous Librarian" was because I honestly had no idea which direction my career would go. I have worked in school libraries and the kids and teachers are abs
1 comment
Read more