Photo by Cohdra

Upon reading Palacio‘s WONDER, the reader is struck by how ‘normal’ protagonist Auggie is in almost every way. He’s a regular kid who likes regular things like eating ice cream and playing X-Box. Despite his lifetime of countless painful surgeries, the kid has a great sense of humor and a fairly positive outlook on life. Auggie comes from a loving family, has a pleasant enough older sister, and even a great dog as a pet. Like other kids, Auggie desires to belong, to have friends, and to liked by others. Everything about his life is ‘normal’ – except his face.

As human beings, we all share basically the same desires for friendship, security, respect, and love. Whether a child has ‘special needs’ or not, their desires are really pretty basic – to be accepted by others. Orchestrating opportunities for inclusion can help the special needs child feel ‘normal’ and the ALSC has a blog full of great ideas with which to do so.

We at ReaderKidZ encourage you to take some time to peruse this great resource. Perhaps you’re looking for just the right book on the topic of special needs awareness to share with your students. If so, the post entitled Spotlight on the Schneider Award, written by Renee Grassi, might be beneficial. Renee also shares insights about working with autistic students in her post Autism in Your Library. Another example of a helpful ALSC blog post is Top 10 Ways to Tell if Your Library is Inclusive.

To be included. Isn’t that what we all, as humans, are seeking? To be liked. To belong.  The character of Auggie demonstrates that we all desire basically the same things, only some of us need just a little bit more help to get there. And the bloggers for American Library Association are always eager to offer support.