50 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 school and graduation medal honor Henry Ward Beecher, whose sister wrote which abolitionist 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 Erin Brockovich Oscar winner plays Auggie's mother, the parent who homeschooled him, in the 2017 film Wonder?

Julia Roberts was confirmed within weeks of entering talks in April 2016, the same day the film's director was set.

Which Frat Pack actor, the voice of Lightning McQueen, 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 child actor, who broke out as the boy held captive in Room, plays Auggie in the 2017 film Wonder?

Jacob Tremblay was cast in April 2016 and later voiced the title character in Pixar's Luca and Flounder in The Little Mermaid.

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the 2017 film Wonder which grade on its A+ to F scale?

A+ is CinemaScore's top mark, one of roughly 100 ever awarded when Wonder earned it, and the film's second weekend dropped just 17.7 percent, the word of mouth that grade predicts.

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 in Wonder, which his father later admits stashing in his office?

Astronaut helmet in hand, Auggie's dad offers it back before graduation, and Auggie happily says he no longer needs 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 5,000,000 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 Hamilton Tony winner, who originated Lafayette and Jefferson, plays English teacher Mr. Browne in the film Wonder?

Daveed Diggs was cast in July 2016, a month after winning the Tony for his dual Hamilton roles, and also fronts the hip hop group Clipping.

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 author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower directed the 2017 film adaptation of R. J. Palacio's Wonder?

Stephen Chbosky took over after Paul King and John Krokidas were each attached, and went on to direct Dear Evan Hansen in 2021.

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

Wayne Dyer's line became the seed of the Choose Kind movement, and Palacio invited readers to send her their own precepts.

How often does Mr. Browne give his class a new precept in Wonder, each followed by an essay on its meaning?

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 split as $132 million in the United States and Canada and $182 million elsewhere, more than fifteen times its cost.

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

Makeup and Hairstyling recognized Arjen Tuiten, whose facial prosthetics for Auggie were also nominated at the BAFTAs and by the Saturn Awards.

Which 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 hosted filming from July to September 2016, and its star was born in Vancouver in 2006.

The novel Wonder puts the Pullmans in a fictional Upper Manhattan neighborhood; the film moves them to which borough?

Brooklyn is the film's home for Auggie, while the book's North Riverside Heights is invented; Beecher Prep is fictional in both.

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 Thornton Wilder 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.

Auggie & Me, first issued as separate e-books before being bound as one volume, collects how many Wonder stories?

Three stories retell the school year through other eyes, including 'The Julian Chapter', which explains why the bully mistreats Auggie.

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

Christopher knew Auggie before the move to a mainstream school, and 'Pluto' sits in the middle of the collection.

Which companion to R. J. Palacio's Auggie Pullman story offers a precept for every day, over 100 sent by readers?

365 Days of Wonder draws its sayings from songs, tombstones and fortune cookies, and over 100 readers contributed precepts of their own.

Which 2019 Palacio graphic novel follows Julian's grandmother as a Jewish girl hidden 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 Finding Neverland and Quantum of Solace director made the 2024 Wonder spin-off film about Julian's grandmother?

Marc Forster shot it in the Czech Republic in 2021, and strike delays then held its US release until October 2024.

In the 2024 Wonder spin-off film, the classmate who hides young Sara in a barn has a leg paralyzed by which disease?

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

Which actor, whose first feature was A Dog's Purpose, plays bully Julian in the film Wonder and its 2024 spin-off?

Bryce Gheisar, from Plano, Texas, played young Ethan in A Dog's Purpose the same year he played Julian.

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 ended a run of Auggie-related books stretching back to Wonder 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 arrived the same year as the film and keeps Auggie under his helmet for most of its pages.

R. J. Palacio splits Wonder into how many parts, rotating Auggie's own narration with voices of family and classmates?

Eight parts let the same school year be retold by the people around Auggie, showing that his arrival tests them as much as him.

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 rate, and a majority of people with the condition have conductive hearing loss, helped more by bone-conduction hearing aids than by surgery.

Applying Auggie's prosthetic face, ears and wig to the young lead of the 2017 film Wonder took roughly how long?

An hour and a half built a skull cap with prosthetic ears, a full facial prosthetic and a wig, designed by Arjen Tuiten.

In the 2017 film Wonder, Auggie has undergone how many surgeries by the time he starts fifth grade?

27 surgeries have helped him function, and the film still opens with him hiding his face under a helmet outdoors.

Which London-born actor, later the son in A Quiet Place, plays Auggie's friend Jack in the 2017 film Wonder?

Noah Jupe was a newcomer when cast in July 2016, and the role helped earn him a London Film Critics' Circle nomination as young performer of the year.

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

Massachusetts hosted the musical's premiere, with Javier Muñoz and Alison Luff as Auggie's parents.

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

Sônia Braga joined in August 2016 as Grans, and had earned a BAFTA nomination decades earlier for Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.