R.J. PALACIO

PENS A NEW STORY OF KINDNESS AND COURAGE

by Melissa Fales

In her debut novel, Wonder, author R.J. Palacio explored the range of human responses to those who are different from us and how wholly even the smallest acts of kindness can bridge those differences. In Palacio’s first graphic novel, White Bird, due out in October, she once again shares a touching story about the ability of kindness to overcome difference and hate, this time set in Nazi-occupied France during one of history’s darkest hours. 

“My books tend to all be about being different in some way, and how human kindness is the thing that unites us all,” she says. “Kindness is one aspect of the human condition that elevates us. It makes us better, stronger. There are people who see being kind as a weakness. Those people are sadly misguided. Being kind is one of the most empowering things we have as humans.”

Illustration has always come naturally to Palacio. “It’s pretty amazing, when you’re very little and you realize you can draw,” she says. “There’s an air of magic to it, because it’s an ability that comes out of nowhere when you’re little. You don’t even realize it’s special until your friends start asking you to draw things for them, or your teachers volunteer you to draw things on the chalkboard for them.” 

Because she loved drawing so much, Palacio practiced it, often. “I spent hours drawing from my imagination, but also copying from the big coffee table art books my parents had,” she says. “Michelangelo, Rafael, Rubens. If you want to learn how to draw horses, copy from DaVinci.” 

By the time she entered Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design, Palacio knew she wanted to pursue a career as an artist in some form. “I knew even then that I wanted to write and illustrate my own books,” she says. She attended the prestigious Parsons School of Design and enjoyed a successful career in illustration that spanned over 20 years, but she never discarded her early aspirations. “I was always going to be a writer,” she says. “Being a graphic designer and illustrator was what I did for a living, but being a writer was always the goal.”

The inspiration to write Wonder came from a chance encounter. “I was with my toddler son in front of an ice cream store one day, and we saw a child with a craniofacial difference,” says Palacio. “My son got scared. I wasn’t sure what to do. It got me thinking a lot about what it must be like to face a world everyday that doesn’t always know how to face you back.”

“My books tend to all be about being different in some way, and how human kindness is the thing that unites us all. Kindness is one aspect of the human condition that elevates us. It makes us better, stronger.”

Wonder follows a fifth-grade boy named Auggie whose severe facial condition separates him from the other students at his new school. The students’ reactions to the way Auggie looks vary, from extending him offers of friendship to bullying him mercilessly. Palacio shares the story of Wonder from the point of view of several characters. “I thought it was the best way to tell the story of Auggie Pullman,” she says. “If we stayed in his head only, we couldn’t really know what other people were thinking about him, and I wanted to tell the story of his impact on the people around him.”

Following its release in 2012, Wonder held a spot on the New York Times Bestseller List for over five years, including over 140 weeks at the very top. In 2017, it was adapted into a hit movie. Palacio has continued to build upon the story of Wonder in other genres, including her quote-a-day book, 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts and her picture book, We’re All Wonders. “Ultimately, the message of Wonder is about the importance of human kindness, the impact small kindnesses can have,” she says. “It’s a message that needs sharing, so I wanted to tell it in as many ways as I could to reach young readers.” 

Palacio’s 2015 book Auggie & Me introduced the character of Grandmere, whose grandson, Julian, is Auggie’s most vicious tormentor. White Bird delves into Grandmere’s childhood, when she was Sara Blum, a young Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. “White Bird is a graphic novel that’s also, ultimately, about human kindness but in a time when the stakes were much higher and being kind, finding compassion for people who were suffering, or having the courage to fight for people who were being targeted could cost you your life,” says Palacio. “Sara is forced to go into hiding, and is helped by a young boy in her class who, like Auggie, had been targeted for unkindness by his classmates because of a physical difference. In Julien’s case, it’s because he had polio. Sara is taken in by Julien’s family, and kept safe in their barn. She relies on their kindness, and their humanity. It’s a story about kindness, compassion, and courage.”

Palacio did her homework in order to portray this key time in history accurately. “I did extensive research, not only about WWII, of course, but about the Holocaust, life in Vichy, France during the occupation, and about the Righteous in France who put their lives on the line to help Jews fleeing persecution,” she says. 

Despite its historical setting, Palacio finds White Bird particularly timely in the context of the controversial immigration crisis our nation is currently experiencing. “When I see how immigrants are being caged on our borders right now, and how some people can look at them without a shred of pity, or can see children being separated from their parents and locked in cages, I’m reminded of how ordinary Germans must have looked away when confronted with the targeted persecution of Jews in their midst,” Palacio says. “I’m reminded of the Nazi collaborators in France. I’m reminded of how people wrapped their heads in nationalism and patriotism, but left their humanity behind. I didn’t think anything like this could ever happen in the United States. We can’t afford to look away. If we do, it’s at our own peril.” 

Palacio believes there are lessons to be learned from what happened to people like Sara Blum 70 years ago. “We have to learn from our past mistakes so we don’t repeat them,” she says. “We look back at history so we can understand how to avoid those mistakes. The Holocaust was a barbaric, monstrous, state-sponsored genocide in which 6 million Jews were killed. But that kind of thing doesn’t happen overnight. There are stages of genocide. It begins with the dehumanization of people. It begins when people learn to regard other people as something less, something inferior. When that starts to happen, we ALL need to resist, to protest, and to speak out.”

What our country really needs, says Palacio, is more kindness. “Kindness isn’t political,” she says. “It doesn’t belong to one party or another. It’s a human thing. So if you find that the party you belong to or the leaders you elected are doing something that goes counter to what you know in your heart is right, choose your humanity over your politics. Choose kindness over anger. Choose love over hate.” 

For more information about R.J. Palacio and her books, visit wonderthebook.com.