Part 1: August

The story begins with this line "I know I'm not an ordinary kid". This is August, an ordinary little boy in a not so ordinary body. In the first couple pages we discover that August has an appearance that is not like many others. August can not go anywhere without people reacting negatively about with appearance. He has been very sheltered because of this. He has been home schooled and rarely goes places outside his neighborhood. No one sees August as ordinary in any way, except maybe himself. There is a quote on the very first page by August that shows this "I think the only person in the world who realizes how ordinary I am is me".

The first part really made me think about how fixated we are on appearance. I do not think there is one person in this world that can say they are 100% satisfied with the way they look. But, why?! I teach young children and I often have students that will pick on each other because of appearance. My response is always the same. If we all look and dressed the same the world would be a very boring place. There would be no character, no difference, no individuality. We would see in black and white and no other colors would show. My students agree and understand, but a few days later we will have to have the same conversation over and over again.

When the story progresses we start to see August believing that maybe some people can see past appearance and understand the world needs difference to be beautiful. August goes to school and starts to make friends. It is very difficult at first because the entire student body is watching him. No matter what he does, people are always watching him. As the weeks went on, fewer people paid as close attention to him. He knew people still talked about him and constantly felt the eyes upon him, but he also knew people were getting use to him. He had friends and he was starting enjoy school.

The story began to change some when Halloween drew near. There is a quote from the book that really sums up how August feels about the holiday he loves so dearly "I wish every day could be Halloween. We could all wear masks all the time. Then we could walk around and get to know each other before we got to see what we looked like under the mask". This is a very true statement because we do tend to judge a book by its cover. This was a constant for August and the initial judgment was almost always negativity or pity.

On Halloween, August came to school wearing a costume with a mask and he overheard his friend saying some terrible things about him. He heard his best friend, Jack, say he was forced to be friends with August and would kill himself if he looked like him. This was heartbreaking to read. Just when August thought people were looking past his appearance and he was starting to enjoy school with his friends, he puts on a mask and a terrible truth comes out. In this moment, August found that Jack might have been the one hiding behind a mask the entire time.