Our next guest contributor to the Weekend Picks is Kaleigh Carter. Kaleigh is a teacher candidate in her second semester of Residency at Southeastern Louisiana University. She successfully undergoes her student teaching in a high school English classroom. Despite of a heavy load, she enjoys reading and sharing her favorite books.
Determined to choose kindness and compassion, Kaleigh introduces a 2012 novel by R. J. Palacio, which has become New York Times Bestseller for over five years. In Wonder, Palacio, treats us to a story of a boy, who is born different, but brave enough to face his fears.

The inspirational quote on the cover of the novel, “You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out,” perfectly encapsulates the heart of this novel. R.J. Palacio’s Wonder will make you laugh, cry, and feel just about every emotion within your capacity. Have your tissues ready when you read the inspiring and heartbreaking story of August (Auggie) Pullman, a boy born with facial deformities who braves the challenge of joining his very first mainstream school in the fifth grade. 

Auggie Pullman has been homeschooled and isolated from peers his whole life until he starts attending Beecher Prep Middle School where he faces the challenges of bullying, discrimination, and other cruelties of middle school life. Palacio skillfully structures the novel, and readers are able to see multiple perspectives of Auggie's life through the eyes of his family members.
Though Augie is unsuspecting of all of the stares, gossip, and avoidance of those around him, his big sister Via, however, is not. In true big sister fashion, Via is extremely protective of her brother and loves him deeply, but audiences see that she is also going through her own struggles. Since her parents show most of their attention to Augie, Via struggles feeling neglected. It seems that her parents don’t see that she is facing her own set of struggles as she begins high school.
Auggie’s parents, Nate and Isabel, balance one another as Isabel is afraid to let go and Nate understands that Auggie cannot be sheltered forever.
          

The novel is full of quotable statements, and I offer you here three of them as an example. 

​ The highs and lows of the Pullman family are masterfully and beautifully captured by Palacio. This novel is a must-read for not only middle school-aged kids, but everyone; as it is sure to spark a sense of wonder in all. ​

​This week's suggestion is brought to you by Jacob Blocker, another student of mine who is in his residency year. Soon Jacob will be teaching a class of his own, but today he is actively engaged with teaching methods, pedagogy, and constant search of the books that are relevant to secondary school students. 

​Pinned is a young adult novel by Sharon G. Flake that centers around the budding romance of two differently abled African American teens: Autumn and Adonis. Autumn is a girl who excels in wrestling and cooking. She’s an immediately likable protagonists with an outwardly cheerful disposition and tomboyish bravado. Adonis is a boy who excels academically and carries himself with a maturity that often seems beyond his years. He is well respected but lacks Autumns approachable charm, something that may make him read as unreasonably harsh early on. What complicates the tentative teen romance are the problems the characters “wrestle” with. 

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In Garner County, all girls are banished to the wilderness for a year when they’re 16 to release their feminine magic into the wild. They must purify themselves before returning home, where some will be married, and some will have to work. When Tierney James enters her grace year, she quickly realizes that everything she fears about the grace year—including poachers that hunt the girls for sport and disappearances that can’t be explained—is nothing compared to the girls she must survive with.
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Meet the Author
Kim Liggett originally pursued a career in music in the 1980s and sang backup for some of the biggest rock bands in the country. In 2015 she published her first novel, Blood and Salt. Her other works include Heart of Ash, The Last Harvest, and The Unfortunates.
Backstory
In an interview with Brazos Bookstore, Kim Liggett revealed that she was inspired to write The Grace Year after watching a young girl, maybe 13 years old, board a train to return to school. Her parents seemed relieved to be free of her, and the men in the train station were eyeing her for a bit too long. The other women seemed to look at her with pity or jealousy for her childlike innocence and happiness. 

​Reviews
“The bones of Liggett’s (The Unfortunates, 2018, etc.) tale of female repression are familiar ones, but her immersive storytelling effortlessly weaves horror elements with a harrowing and surprising survival story. Profound moments lie in small details, and readers’ hearts will race and break right along with the brave, capable Tierney’s. The biggest changes often begin with the smallest rebellions, and the emotional conclusion will resonate. All characters are assumed white. Chilling, poignant, haunting, and, unfortunately, all too timely.”                  
                                                                                                                           -Kirkus Reviews