R.J. Palacio is bringing a little more wonder to the world…
The Latina writer, whose real name is Raquel Jaramillo, will release a companion book to her hit kids’ novel Wonder, which centers on a fifth grader with a facial deformity.
Random House will publish Palacio’s companion title, entitled 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts, on August 26.
The book is filled with precepts or principles to live by for each day of the year.
In Wonder, which is aimed at readers 8 to 12, the character Mr. Browne is a memorable teacher who loves precepts.
Palacio asked readers for ideas for a new book via Twitter and Tumblr, She ended up getting more than 1,200 responses in two weeks. She used about 100 of the readers’ suggestions the new book, which uses quotations from Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. It also includes letters and e-mails from the fictional characters in Wonder.
Palacio is also writing an e-book, The Julian Chapter: A Wonder Story, about the bully in Wonder, to be released May 13.
In a statement, Palacio says of Julian: “I had always thought he was an interesting character worthy of further exploration, but I didn’t give him a voice in Wonder because he had nothing to add to [main character] Auggie’s narrative.”
