Penny, The Review Group's reviewer Penny for Your ThoughtsThe Review Group
Children's ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook

Wonder

R. J. Palacio · 2022
🎙 Narrated by Full cast: Kaya McLean, Lila Sage Bromley, Dariana Alvarez, Santino Barnard, Ry Chase, and Madeleine Curry (Listening Library, 2022 edition)
81/100
👍 Worth It

A modern classic for good reason — it handles bullying and difference with real thoughtfulness and lands its 'meditation on kindness' without ever getting preachy, which is a hard needle to thread. Widely taught for a reason, and it holds up on a re-listen too. The full ensemble cast mirrors the book's shifting-perspective structure nicely, though I couldn't find a dedicated trade review of this specific 2022 edition to confirm performance quality in detail.

✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.

▶ Listen to a sample

🎙 Narration: good Full ensemble cast (six narrators) mirrors the novel's multiple first-person perspectives; well liked by listeners but no dedicated trade audio review (e.g., AudioFile) was located for this 2022 edition.

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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety90
Substance / usefulness85
Craft & writing82
Originality75
Evidence & accuracy75
Hype vs delivers78
Age-fit88
Human-eye read82
Penny’s verdict81
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