Books like We're All Wonders
By R.J. Palacio
For the kid who's ever felt looked at instead of seen, this puts a gentle, honest voice around that feeling — and around learning to offer others a kinder look. Tender, plainspoken, quietly hopeful.
A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother every Sunday, grumbling about the rain and the wait, until she helps him see the beauty and music hiding in their ordinary route.
A costumed superhero girl and her Bug Squad friends volunteer at a dog-adoption fair, doing small jobs like brushing and feeding dogs until Lulu dreams up a plan to help every one of them find a home.
A family meets a friendly stray dog at a picnic, names him Willy, and spends the whole afternoon playing with him — but saying goodbye turns out to be harder than they expect.
In a Dutch town still recovering after World War II, a girl receives a surprise care package from an American stranger — and a simple thank-you letter grows into an exchange of boxes that keeps getting bigger.
A zookeeper spends every day visiting his animal friends — racing the tortoise, sitting with the shy penguin, reading to the owl — until he wakes up too sick to come, and they decide to visit him instead.
A girl dreads joining the special education class at her new school, nicknamed the junkyard, until her teacher Mrs. Peterson helps her see her odd, brilliant classmates for who they really are.
A boy who wants a dog sets out to count every dog in the neighborhood, going door to door to prove to his Grandma there aren't already enough.
Imprisoned with her family at a WWII incarceration camp, a young woman finds a small library and, in it, a quiet friendship with a man who checks out an armful of books every single day.
A gentle pony too plain for the beautiful horses inside the walled city ends up the only one who can save its children when the bridge breaks in half.
A young boy asks his grandma where God is in their city, so she teaches him to look for kindness, patience, and love in the people around him.
A skilled quiltmaker refuses to make a quilt for a rich, unhappy king unless he gives away everything he owns — and the more he gives, the happier he becomes.
After something terrible happens, a child named Taylor is visited by animal after animal, each pushing a different way to cope — until the rabbit arrives and simply listens.
