OUGD503 PENGUIN BOOKS RESEARCH

I chose the children's book option in the penguin book competition which is Wonder by R.J. Palacio. The reason I chose this was because I have had a previous encounter with the story and narrative giving me a slight head start. I began my research by reviewing the given information on the penguin website. The story tackles with issues such as friendship, tenacity, fear and most importantly kindness. It explores the way people behave and perhaps the ways they should and should not behave.

Upon reading the synopsis of the book, there is a lot of themes throughout the book which could be easy links to begin my initial ideas. The main approachable aspect of the book is that it is about a boy names August who suffers from a facial deformity, there by suffering from bullying in the new school he attends. His unfortunate facial deformity is one of the main themes of the books and is what causes all of the events that unfold within the storyline. The original cover for this book is very illustrative and plays on the theme of his Auggie's face, creating quite a literal design with simple intent. It illustrates a face with no features, leaving it up to the reader to decide what the main characters facial deformity looks like. The type is playful and eases into the illustration very well, keeping in mind that this is a children's book.

Another strong theme I discovered throughout the synopsis was perspective. Throughout the book the reader will experience the story through the eyes of three main roles Auggie, Summer his sister and what he thinks to be his best friend Jack. From Auggie's point of view, the whole world hates him and makes fun of his facial deformity. In the mind of Summer, the whole family's world revolves around Auggie and she has no attention of her own bar from her grandmother whom passed away before the events of the book. This causes her to suffer from a lot of jealousy. Finally, the way Jack see's things is trying to decide between being friends with Auggie, which is what he really wants, or continuing to be friends with the crowd that bullies Auggie. Throughout the story, Jack has to make tough decisions to prove who he is most loyal towards. There are many themes of loyalty and jealousy throughout the book but most specifically perspective. This could be a strong starting point for the cover. 

One of the most important events within the book is on Halloween, Auggie's most favourite part of the year. This is because he can dress however he likes and have nobody judge him for the way he looks. This is such an important event because it is the day Auggie finds out Jack, his meant to be best friend, is perhaps more loyal to the kids that bully Auggie. Jack says "he'd rather kill himself then look like that" however they fail to notice Auggie sat in the room dressed in a bleeding Scream costume with his body entirely covered. This theme of hiding, halloween and the Scream mask have a strong visual presence which would also be a great beginning when creating my cover.