And I say to myself it's wonderful, wonderful! Oh so wonderful this book!

Amazing. I haven't loved a book this much since The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. Funny, touching, heart-breaking, sincere, moving, what other excellent-review-type-words can I put in here? This is a must-read. Of course, I've got it pre-ordered for my library and I have emailed our middle school librarian and a couple other middle school teachers as well, to let them know that this baby needs to be on their list of purchases. I can't say enough good things about it.
August was born with a not one, but two genetic abnormalities that caused his face to be severely deformed. After a ton of surgeries he still claims that he doesn't look anything near "normal" and people still stop and stare when seeing him for the first time. Partly because of all of the surgeries and partly to protect him from the not-so-nice world, August's parents have homeschooled him for the first years of his life. Now, August (Auggie) is going to middle school, the private Beecher Prep, close to his home in Manhattan. This is a coming of age story and yet so much more than that. Auggie is such a brave dude, but he is also human and this makes the story so real that it is impossible not to cry and laugh thoughout the book.
The story is told from a few different points of view: Auggie's, his sister Via's, Via's boyfriend's, Via's former best friend's and the POVs of a couple of Auggie's new friends from Beecher. Each one of these characters is written so well, I wished that there could be a whole book written from each of their points of view. There are many characters to despise, Ximena and Julian, for example, but other than those toadstools, is very easy to be sympathetic to each of the other characters, even when they do things that make one cringe.
I loved, loved, loved Wonder. This book HAS to be the Newbery. Seriously. It is that good.   It is due out next February from Random House.