Auggie Pullman is a down-to-earth child who has a loving family, an adoring dog and a horrible genetic condition - his facial features are contorted to the point of deformity.
At 10 years old, Pullman has been home-schooled all his life, but his parents have decided he has to confront the real world and send him off to school.
Pullman and his parents have no illusions about children's cruelty and are aware this will be traumatic. And, as we suspect from the start, it is almost catastrophically so. But we are all given one life to live. Also, Pullman is brave, so it is off to school.
Wonder, as countless headline writers have said, is wondrous.
It's written for children, but I wept at its conclusion. And its message - that choosing to be kind is almost always the right choice - is one every child should learn. Read it.
And make your children read it.
Altbeker edits www.mampoer.co.za, Wonder by RJ Palacio (Random House, R115)