Julian is older now and attends a new school. He has a project for his Humanities class that requires him to write an essay about someone he knows. He calls his beloved Grandmere and asks if he can interview her about her childhood. After her initial pleasure of being chosen, she falters at the thought of sharing her childhood with him again, but quickly decides that young people like her grandson need to know the whole story of the terrible historical event of the Holocaust.

Her story begins in France where she grew up happy and loved. Like Julian, she had a boy in her class that others mocked and she let it happen. Little does she know this boy is an important part of her future. She tells Julian how she lived in the Free Zone of France, but this changed as does her entire way of life.

There are bullies in her past, far worse than Julian can imagine, and as Grandmere continues to share her brave story, she tells Julian of those who helped saved her life in one of the worst times in history. Julian is deeply moved when her story is done, thinking back to his own bad behavior in the past. Grandmere assures him that although he can’t do anything about who he was in the past, it is the person he is now that is important.

Told in Graphic Novel format, this extension of the phenomenal Wonder story is just as powerful as the original.

White Bird is an important reminder of our past and how we must ensure it doesn’t happen again. It ties well into current events around the world and ends beautifully. Might need a tissue or two for this one…. 

Author / Illustrator – R J Palacio

Age – 10+

(War, French Resistance, Kindness, Danger, Hate, Nazi, Courage, Isolation, Fear, Hiding, WWII, World War 2, Jewish, Grief, Loss, Family, School Project)