Beginner’s Pluck

RJ Palacio

As a child, Raquel aspired to be an artist or a writer. Deciding she’d make a better living through art, she became a graphic designer, but has always written. None of her ideas materialised.

“Five years ago, I was out with my children when we saw a girl with a severe facial abnormality. My young son started to cry with fright, and the older one looked shell-shocked. I pushed the stroller away, and thought, ‘what should I have done’? I wondered what life must be like for that little girl; for her mother and sister,” she says. Raquel started writing Wonder that evening, and the characters arrived fully formed. “It was as if I was reporting the things that happened.” The book has inspired a Random House, anti-bullying, choose kind, website.