99 Fun Facts About Wonder (R.J. Palacio)

Which genetic condition, named for an English eye surgeon who described it in 1900, does Auggie Pullman have in Wonder?

Treacher Collins syndrome affects the ears, eyes, cheekbones and chin, and most cases come from a new mutation rather than a parent. Edward Treacher Collins was an ophthalmologist.

In Wonder, Auggie's graduation medal at Beecher Prep is named for Henry Ward Beecher, whose sister wrote which famous American novel?

Uncle Tom's Cabin made Harriet Beecher Stowe world-famous, while her brother Henry raised money to buy enslaved people their freedom and shipped rifles nicknamed 'Beecher's Bibles' to Kansas.

Which Best Actress Oscar winner plays Auggie's mother, the parent who homeschooled him, in the 2017 film Wonder?

Julia Roberts's character gets the title line: after Auggie thanks her at graduation for sending him to school, she tells him he is a 'wonder'.

Which Frat Pack comedy star plays Auggie's father in the 2017 film Wonder?

Owen Wilson joined the cast in June 2016, playing a dad who quietly stows away the headgear his son hides behind.

Which Canadian child actor plays Auggie in the 2017 film Wonder?

Jacob Tremblay, the boy from Room, does not lead the 2024 spin-off, which follows Auggie's bully Julian instead.

Which audience-polling firm gave the 2017 film Wonder its rare top grade of A+?

CinemaScore polls opening-night audiences, and the A+ showed a week later, when Wonder's second weekend slipped just 17.7 percent.

What is the name of the Pullman family dog in Wonder, whose dying pulls Auggie out of a sulk to say goodbye?

Daisy is taken to the vet to be put down just after Auggie overhears Via saying she does not want him at her school play.

What does Auggie wear in public to hide his face, which his father admits stashing in his office in the film Wonder?

Astronaut helmet is what Auggie's dad offers to find again before graduation if he needs it back, and Auggie tells him he can do without it.

Auggie's older sister in Wonder, starting high school as he starts middle school, goes by Via — short for what?

Olivia resents the attention Auggie gets from their parents, yet enjoys a fresh start at a school where nobody knows her brother.

Which singer's 1995 song about a child born with a congenital disease gave R. J. Palacio's novel Wonder its title?

Natalie Merchant's single reached number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Palacio has said it helped inspire the book alongside her son's reaction to a girl with a facial difference.

On which February holiday in 2012 did Knopf first publish R. J. Palacio's debut novel Wonder?

Valentine's Day 2012 launched a book that sold almost five million copies in the United States in 2017 alone, when its film adaptation arrived.

Which Star Wars bounty hunter does Jack expect Auggie to dress as on Halloween in Wonder, so fails to recognize him?

Boba Fett was the plan, but Auggie switched outfits, and an unrecognized Auggie overheard Jack joining Julian's mockery of him.

Wonder opened in second place at the US box office in November 2017, behind which superhero film?

Justice League won the weekend, but Wonder had been projected at only $9M before strong previews and group ticket sales tripled expectations.

Which Tony-winning member of Hamilton's original cast plays English teacher Mr. Browne in the film Wonder?

Daveed Diggs was cast weeks after winning his Tony for playing both Lafayette and Jefferson, and his Mr. Browne is the teacher who sets the class precepts to live by.

Which actor, famous as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, plays Auggie's school principal in the film Wonder?

Mandy Patinkin plays Mr. Tushman, the principal who confronts the bully's parents; he also won a Tony as Che in the first Broadway Evita.

Which novelist, who had already filmed his own coming-of-age bestseller, directed the 2017 film of Wonder?

Stephen Chbosky, who filmed his own novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, took over Wonder after John Krokidas and then Paul King had each been attached.

Mr. Browne's first precept in Wonder, about choosing kind over being right, quotes which self-help author?

Wayne Dyer's line gave the book its motto, and its publisher built the Choose Kind movement around it.

How often does Mr. Browne give his class a new precept to copy into their notebooks in Wonder?

Monthly precepts run through the school year, and Palacio later expanded the idea into a companion book with one for every day.

Roughly how much did the 2017 film Wonder gross worldwide against a $20M production budget?

$315 million rewarded a gamble: the modest family drama opened against a superhero blockbuster and took three times its forecast in the first weekend.

The 2017 film Wonder's only Academy Award nomination, at the 90th ceremony, came in which category?

Makeup and Hairstyling recognized Arjen Tuiten's prosthetic face, ears and wig for Auggie, which took an hour and a half to apply and lost on the night to Darkest Hour's Churchill.

Which mini-major studio released the film Wonder in November 2017, after pushing it back from an April date?

Lionsgate had announced the adaptation of Palacio's debut novel in November 2012, just nine months after the book came out.

Besides New York, the 2017 film Wonder shot in which Canadian province, the birthplace of its young lead?

British Columbia stands in for the story's New York: scenes at Auggie's school were filmed at Vancouver College, a real private school.

In the film Wonder, Auggie trick-or-treats as which masked slasher after the family dog ruins his planned costume?

Ghostface was simply last year's outfit, and wearing it means Jack, not knowing who is under the mask, mocks Auggie to his face.

In the film Wonder, Jack apologizes to Auggie after their falling-out through which video game?

Minecraft carries the apology after Jack has served a two-day suspension for fighting Julian in Auggie's defense.

In the film Wonder, Auggie's popularity turns after he and Jack win first prize at which school event?

The science fair is where Jack chose Auggie over Julian as a partner, the choice that cost him his popular friends.

Via steps in as understudy for the lead in which classic American play at her high school in the film Wonder?

Our Town gives Via a standing ovation on opening night, after her estranged best friend fakes illness so Via can go on with her family watching.

Which friend of Via's, cast as the school play's lead, fakes illness on opening night so Via can perform in Wonder?

Miranda had been avoiding Via for reasons Via could not work out, and gives up the part after spotting the Pullman family in the audience.

What are the first names of Auggie's parents in Wonder, who end his homeschooling by enrolling him in fifth grade?

Isabel and Nate Pullman want their son to experience the world, and in the film Isabel is the one Auggie thanks at graduation.

Which classmate joins Auggie at lunch on his first day in Wonder, and later hints to Jack why Auggie is upset?

Summer's hint makes Jack realize his mistake, and his fight with Julian ends with Jack reconciling with Auggie at the cost of his popular friends.

Which of Auggie's welcome-tour guides in Wonder narrates the story 'Shingaling' in Auggie & Me?

Charlotte was the first person to be nice to Auggie at Beecher Prep, and her story turns to the friendships among the girls in his year.

In the film Wonder, the bully's mother admits editing Auggie out of what?

The class photo is what she admits altering herself, and the principal suspends her son anyway, even after the parents bring up the money they have given the school.

Who narrates 'Pluto' in Auggie & Me, the story set before Auggie's mainstream school years, as his oldest friend?

Christopher is the old friend who moved away to Connecticut, so 'Pluto' shows Auggie's early years through someone who knew him before Beecher Prep.

Which companion to R. J. Palacio's Auggie Pullman story collects a precept for every day of the year?

365 Days of Wonder gathers Mr. Browne's precepts on kindness and breaks them up with letters and emails written by characters from the novel.

Which 2019 Palacio graphic novel follows Julian's grandmother as a Jewish girl sheltered from the Nazis in wartime France?

White Bird turns Wonder's bully into a listener, as Grandmère recounts the classmate whose family concealed her in occupied France.

Which Oscar-winning Dame plays Julian's Parisian grandmother in the 2024 Wonder spin-off film?

Helen Mirren's Grandmère tells her story to a Julian played by the same young actor who took the role in the 2017 film.

Which James Bond director made the 2024 Wonder spin-off film about Julian's grandmother?

Marc Forster, who made Quantum of Solace, shot it in the Czech Republic in 2021, and schedule changes and the 2023 actors' strike held its US release until October 2024.

In the 2024 Wonder spin-off film, the classmate who hides young Sara in a barn lives with the effects of which disease?

Polio left Julien Beaumier with a paralyzed leg, and each night he teaches Sara what he learned at school that day.

Bryce Gheisar, the bully Julian in Wonder, also played young Ethan in which other 2017 film?

A Dog's Purpose opened the same year as Wonder, and Gheisar returned to Julian as a teenager in the 2024 spin-off about his grandmother's wartime childhood.

Wonder author R. J. Palacio, a New Yorker born to Colombian immigrants, has initials standing for what first name?

Raquel Jaramillo was the name on her early board books for children, which she drew herself before adopting the pen name.

Which 2021 novel, launched with a 500,000-copy first printing, was R. J. Palacio's first not set in the Wonder universe?

Pony sends a boy out to rescue his kidnapped father with a spectral companion at his side and a mysterious pony as his guide, ending a run of Auggie-related books that began in 2012.

Which 2017 Palacio picture book for younger readers lets Auggie tell his own story from before the events of Wonder?

We're All Wonders was drawn by Palacio herself, who gave Auggie the one-eyed, nearly featureless face made famous by the novel's cover.

Which narrator of the novel Wonder tells his part without any capital letters?

Justin, Via's boyfriend, is a musician, and Palacio has said lowercase letters look to her like notes on a staff, which is why his part has no capitals.

Wonder won the 2015 Mark Twain Readers Award, a prize voted on by schoolchildren in which state, Twain's boyhood home?

Missouri's school librarians prepare the shortlist and the state's children pick the winner, one of a string of state reader awards the book collected.

Auggie's craniofacial condition in Wonder, more often a new mutation than inherited, occurs in about how many people?

1 in 50,000 is the usual estimate, and hearing loss is common because the small bones of the middle ear or the ear canal do not form fully.

On Wonder's nature retreat, who rescues Auggie and Jack from older kids from another school?

The bully's friends, three boys who are usually mean to Auggie, rush to defend him and Jack, and the fight leaves Auggie accepted by his classmates.

In Wonder, Auggie has been through 27 of what by the time he starts school in fifth grade?

Operations, 27 of them, were needed to help him function, and only at ten do his parents decide he should experience the world and enroll him at Beecher Prep.

Which young actor, also a child lead in a hit horror franchise, plays Auggie's friend Jack in the 2017 film Wonder?

Noah Jupe went on to play the son in A Quiet Place after John Krasinski, who had seen him in The Night Manager, talked to George Clooney and watched an early screening of Suburbicon.

Wonder the Musical ran from December 2025 to February 2026 at the American Repertory Theater, in which US state?

Massachusetts saw the world premiere, with the role of Auggie shared by two young actors who both have facial differences of their own.

Which Brazilian star, a Golden Globe nominee, plays Auggie's grandmother in the film Wonder?

Sônia Braga, known abroad for Kiss of the Spider Woman, plays Grans, who has died before the story begins and was the one person who always put Via first.

Which principal asks Jack, Julian and a classmate to give Auggie a school tour in Wonder?

Mr. Tushman's surname sets Auggie and his dad laughing before the boy has even met him. He proves to be the adult who quietly knows everything going on in his school.

What kind of birthday party do the Pullmans throw for Auggie in Wonder, inviting his whole homeroom?

Bowling is the plan, yet only a few classmates come and Julian's mother never even replies. Auggie still has a great time with the friends and family who show up.

What do classmates call the game in Wonder where touching Auggie means washing within 30 seconds?

The Plague is a name Auggie only learns months later, having guessed the game was a kind of Cheese Touch. By spring his classmates have quietly stopped playing it.

Dressed as what on Halloween does Jack Will unknowingly insult Auggie within his earshot in Wonder?

A mummy costume hides Jack as he tells Julian he only befriended Auggie because the principal asked. Auggie, unrecognized behind a mask of his own, hears it all and flees in tears.

What does Auggie lose during the fight in the woods in Wonder, later found in an older boy's locker?

His hearing aids vanish in the scuffle, and the nature reserve offers to pay for a new pair. When the mangled originals surface, Auggie decides against pressing charges.

How does Jack Will respond in Wonder when Julian calls Auggie a freak and urges a swap of partners?

Jack punches him in the mouth, an outburst so unlike him that it stuns his mother and the school. He is sent home until after winter break rather than expelled.

Via opens her part of Wonder by picturing the Pullmans as a galaxy; which role does August play?

The Sun is August, with everyone else in the family orbiting around him. Via insists she has never minded, yet hints that the old order is starting to shift.

What do the Pullmans name the puppy that Auggie's dad brings home in a box near the end of Wonder?

Bear is the furry black puppy waiting in a big white box when Auggie gets back from the class trip. He and Via are allowed to skip school the next day to play with him.

Over winter break in Wonder, Jack and Auggie finish patching up their friendship by trading what?

Text messages finish the job after Jack sends Auggie an emailed apology and a Facebook friend request. The whole chapter is told through letters and messages rather than narration.

R. J. Palacio began Wonder the night her son cried at a girl's face outside which kind of store?

An ice cream shop was where her three-year-old burst into tears and she hurried both boys away. Unable to stop replaying the scene, she started writing that very night.

Which fantasy novel does Auggie's mom read him at bedtime in Wonder after his first day of school?

The Hobbit is their bedtime book, and Auggie is relieved to listen rather than talk about his day. Minutes later he is in tears, asking his mom why he has to look the way he does.

What does Auggie cut off on the night after his first day of school in Wonder, to Via's dismay?

His Padawan braid, grown over years of Star Wars obsession, goes without a word to anyone. His dad shrugs it off, but Via is outraged at what she feels he is giving up.

Which Star Wars villain with a lightning-scarred face does Julian slyly ask Auggie about in Wonder?

Darth Sidious is Julian's dig in homeroom, slipped in as an innocent question about favorite characters. Julian later comes to school on Halloween wearing the villain's mask.

Auggie compares classmates' fear of touching him in Wonder to a cheese curse from which book series?

Diary of a Wimpy Kid gave Auggie the term Cheese Touch for what he suspects is going on. The suspicion hardens when a boy who brushes his hand in class races to the sink to wash.

Which civilization do Auggie's fifth-grade class recreate as a museum exhibit in the gym in Wonder?

Ancient Egypt is the project, with students making artifacts and guiding their parents round in costume. In the dark of the exhibit, Jack gets a whispered clue about why Auggie dropped him.

Where does Via spend a month with her grandmother in Wonder, enjoying a life free of stares?

Montauk was home to Grans, the one person who told Via she came first. Back in the city, Via saw her brother for a split second the way strangers do, and only Grans could be told.

At which Ivy League university did Auggie's parents meet, by Via's account of the family in Wonder?

Brown is where the two met, and they have been together ever since. Via has searched both family trees, his European Jewish and hers Brazilian, for any trace of her brother's condition.

Via's oldest friend returns from camp in Wonder with her hair cut into a bob of which color?

Pink hair in a sharp new bob is Via's first sign that her friend has changed. The girl had been home from camp for a couple of weeks without calling.

How does Via get home from her first day of high school in Wonder, after lying to dodge a ride?

By subway is how Via gets home, and she then lies again to her mom about why the trip took so long. Next morning her dad insists she is old enough to keep doing it.

What does Jack Will find abandoned in a park and fix up in Wonder, unaware a classmate threw it out?

A sled, battered but fast once mended, is Jack's snow-day find, and he names it Lightning. His pride curdles when wealthy Miles mentions leaving that very piece of junk behind.

In Wonder, what does Jack hear Julian's mother did to the class photo before sharing copies around?

Word has it she Photoshopped Auggie out, and Jack repeats the tale to his own mother at home. Julian's mom later writes to the school arguing that Auggie should never have been admitted.

Which instrument does Via's boyfriend carry in Wonder, in a case that looks made for a machine gun?

The fiddle is his instrument, and he later uses that sinister case to scare off three boys who are tormenting Jack. He simply taps it while warning them to leave Jack alone.

Which narrator's part of Wonder is written with no capital letters, as that character writes?

Justin tells Part Five in loose lower-case prose, and he always calls Via by her full first name. He is her boyfriend and the male lead in the school play.

Via makes her boyfriend a messenger bag in Wonder out of which old computer items?

Floppy disks make up the bag, one of many inventive things Via builds from scraps. He tells her she ought to be an artist, though she has very different plans.

Which career does Via want in Wonder, even though her boyfriend tells her she should be an artist?

A geneticist is Via's goal, a choice bound up with her brother's condition. She already knows she carries the same gene mutation as both of her parents.

From whom does Auggie's dad buy the family's old dog in Wonder, without asking anyone at home first?

A homeless man was pushing the dog along in a stroller when Auggie's dad spotted her and bought her on the spot. Via's boyfriend hears the story on his first evening with the family.

Which play does Via's school scrap in Wonder after a student lies about having a disfigured brother?

The Elephant Man was the drama teacher's first choice until one of his students invented a little brother with a birth defect. He changed the production reluctantly.

What powers the lamp that Jack and Auggie build as their class project in Wonder, earning them an A?

A potato works as the battery in their Spud Lamp. Showing it to a gym full of parents, Auggie feels like the North Pole, with every eye pulled toward him.

Who faints on seeing newborn Auggie in the birth story the Pullmans love retelling in Wonder?

The doctor passes out cold, and a gassy nurse nudges him with her foot while yelling at him to wake up. That nurse stays beside Auggie's mom throughout and becomes the hero of the tale.

Which idiom does Auggie's dad use for sending him to school in Wonder, one the boy later googles?

A lamb to the slaughter is his dad's fear, voiced in the car while Auggie is thought to be asleep. Nobody will explain the phrase, so Auggie hunts down its meaning himself.

Jack and Auggie invent a girl of what name in Wonder to sign fake love notes put in Julian's locker?

Beulah is the boys' made-up admirer, their answer to the nasty notes Julian keeps slipping into their lockers. They pick the prank over reporting him to the principal.

In which state is the nature reserve where Auggie's class spends two nights away in Wonder?

Pennsylvania hosts the three-day retreat, Auggie's first real stretch of nights away from his family. His one earlier sleepover ended with his dad driving out after 1 a.m. to bring him home.

Which movie musical is shown outdoors on the second night of the fifth-grade retreat in Wonder?

The Sound of Music draws boos from some of the crowd the moment it is announced. Auggie and Jack slip away early in the film, and their detour into the trees is where the trouble starts.

What is the name of the stuffed toy Auggie leaves on his bed with a note for his mom in Wonder?

Baboo is packed for comfort, then taken out again on the morning Auggie leaves for the class trip. His note says his mom can cuddle the toy if she misses him, and she does, both nights.

Which classmate charges the older boy who pulls Auggie to the ground in the woods in Wonder?

Amos barrels into the bully, and afterward he is the one who calls Auggie brave and hugs him as he cries. At graduation Amos collects the award for excellence in sports.

As which animal does Auggie draw himself in the self-portrait his principal frames in Wonder?

A duck is his choice, and the principal reads into it a deep nod to ugly ducklings that grow into swans. Auggie's reason is simpler: he just thinks he looks like one.

What does the graduation crowd give Auggie as he collects his medal in Wonder, as he once imagined?

A standing ovation greets him, the very thing he once fantasized about getting. Afterward classmates crowd in for photos, and for once he is happy to be in every one.

Which math topic is Auggie's mom terrible at in Wonder, one reason she wants him in a real school?

Fractions are her weak spot, as she reminds Auggie after he overhears her discussing school with a friend. She has already picked the school she wants: close to home, well regarded and not too big.

Which toy brand does Auggie joke is based on him in Wonder, earning a keychain from a classmate?

Uglydoll is the brand, and his deadpan claim takes the girl a second to get before she cracks up. She tells all her friends, and the keychain arrives the next day with a friendly note.

Which hefty Russian novel is Via reading as she starts high school in Wonder, to her dad's teasing?

War and Peace keeps Via company in the library once her old friends drift off, and she finishes it. Her dad cites it as proof she is grown-up enough to cross the city alone.

Auggie rates his first school day in Wonder on a one-to-ten scale he and his mom devised for what?

Pain after surgery was what the scale measured, a quick way to tell his mom how much he hurt. He gives school a five, which she takes as very good news.

What does classmate Henry prop up as a wall between himself and Auggie on the first day in Wonder?

His backpack goes up as a barrier after the teacher moves Henry into the empty seat beside Auggie. When Henry then struggles to open his new lock, Auggie decides not to offer help.

Before Wonder, what did R. J. Palacio do for novelists such as Paul Auster and Thomas Pynchon?

Designing their covers filled her career in publishing, with many hundreds of jackets to her name. For her own novel she asked only to be consulted, and suggested the illustrator.

R. J. Palacio wrote Wonder around a full-time publishing job by working at which time of day?

After midnight was her writing time: she would fall asleep around ten, wake at twelve and work until two or three. She found the quiet made it surprisingly easy.

Part Four of Wonder, narrated by Jack, opens with a quotation from which French children's classic?

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's fable, lends Jack's section its epigraph. Several other parts of the novel open with words from pop songs instead.

Part Six of Wonder, where Auggie resumes the story, opens with lines from which Shakespeare play?

Hamlet provides the epigraph for the part in which the Pullmans say goodbye to their old dog and Via finally steps on stage. It is the second of three sections Auggie narrates.

Part Three of Wonder opens with words from Beautiful, a 2002 ballad recorded by which pop singer?

Christina Aguilera recorded the song, written by Linda Perry, for her album Stripped. Its theme of inner beauty suits a section told by the girl who befriends Auggie at lunch.

Where do Auggie and his classmates end up in Wonder after fleeing the fight in the woods?

A cornfield is where they stop for breath, in an area the retreat had declared off limits. Auggie learns it was Henry who dragged him along the whole way so he would not be left behind.

During the school tour in Wonder, Julian rudely asks Auggie whether his face was damaged in what?

A fire is Julian's guess, asked while no adult is around to hear. Auggie's mom is shocked when she finds out, and offers him the chance to back out of school altogether.

Which homeroom teacher hands out locks on Auggie's first morning at Beecher Prep in Wonder?

Ms. Petosa hesitates for an instant on first seeing Auggie, then smiles as if she means it. She has every student share two things about themselves with the class.