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Jun 22, 2017angeliquelong rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Okay. I have mixed feelings about this book. This review will probably be longer than most of my typical reviews, so bare with me here. I really like this book for the fact that I feel like they are portraying a demographic/population that is often ignored in literature and other forms of mass media. People with disabilities is the largest minority group in our country (USA), but yet we never see them in the media, we never hear about their issues, and our country basically ignores all people with disabilities. As a person who has grown up with disabilities, I can attest to how hard school is when you are different. Kids are mean. Period. The reason I initially asked my parents to take me out of school is because kids were mean to me; I was constantly being picked on. My first memory of kids laughing at me was in Kindergarten. So, I can understand August's challenges he faced going to school for the first time. I also really enjoyed that the book gave us different perspectives of Auggie's story. When there is a child with a disability, it affects the entire family. We (I) often don't think of how families are coping with what is going on. HOWEVER! I don't appreciate the fact that the author used the word "retarded" as a way to call someone stupid, or clueless. There was absolutely no need for that. I feel like I have to decide which issue is more important to me when I'm reviewing/recommending this book, which I think really sucks. But, I WOULD recommend this book to people working/living/loving an individual with a physical disability, or even an individual who has a disability with the caveat that it DOES use the R word. And I will NOT be buying the book because I don't want to be giving money to the author. I'm not sure how to handle this situation. I don't want to support this decision to use this word, but at the same time I think this was a really good book. You decide.