Bestselling novel Wonder turned into big screen hit

On Nov. 17th, the movie adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s 2012 children’s novel, Wonder, directed by Stephen Chbosky, was released to theaters in the United States. The novel is about a ten year old boy named Auggie Pullman, portrayed by Jacob Tremblay in the movie adaptation, and his struggles with bullies as he enters public education for the first time. Before entering public school, he was homeschooled by his mother to shield him from teasing because he had an extremely rare facial deformity called mandibulofacial dysostosis.

Humanities freshman Sofia Bendaña states she liked the book because it was “well written and has a good plot. It talks about a cool underrepresented issue [judging others by their looks].”

Academy award-winning actress and five time recipient of PEOPLE magazine’s Most Beautiful person award Julia Roberts portrays Auggie’s mother. Movie actor Owen Wilson plays Auggie’s father. Fans of the characters Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the recent broadway musical Hamilton should note that actor Daveed Diggs will be playing the new school teacher.

Humanities freshman Brenna Girard stated “I’m a big fan of [Diggs] and I’ll watch the movie, sure.”

Auggie navigates school with his head held high despite bullying from classmates and manages to make friends along the way. The young actor playing Auggie, Tremblay, went through an extreme transformation to look the part in the movie. Tremblay told PEOPLE it took two hours of makeup and prostheses to transform for the role: “a neck piece, the main face piece, a helmet connected to an eye mechanism which pulled my lower eyelids down, a wig, contact lenses and dentures,” he explained.

The novel Wonder won a multitude of awards upon release, including the ALA Notable Children’s Book Award.

Humanities freshman Caroline Culqui said, “I think that if people are truly loyal to the book and they love it unconditionally, they will like the movie.”

She continued “But there’s always something changed to the movie from the book. Because if every single thing in the book was included in a live action movie then people would start talking about how they don’t understand why the book is like this.”

Since the initial book release, Wonder has sold six million copies. So far, the movie has gotten an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Wonder came to theaters on November 17.