Read Pluto free in the Little Reads app.
Pluto by R. J. Palacio is a short, sharp story for 9 year olds about being the best friend of the boy everyone stares at.
Christopher Blake met August Pullman when he was two days old. Their mums were in the same group. Auggie was already three months old and still in hospital, because breathing and swallowing were not automatic for him.
That is how the book opens, and it tells you straight away whose voice this is. Not Auggie's. Christopher's.
He is ten now, and he lives an hour away in Bridgeport, and he has not seen Auggie since October. Then his mum comes into his room on a wet Monday morning and tells him the Pullmans' dog died in the night.
The rest of the book is that one day, ticking along in timestamps, cut through with memories.
And what a day. He leaves his science paper, his trombone and his gym kit at home. His mum promises to bring them in and never turns up. His teacher takes five points off. The first trombonist would happily flatten him. And underneath all of it is the thing he keeps not doing, which is ringing Auggie about the dog.
What makes this so good is how honest Christopher is, including about the things you are not supposed to say out loud. He remembers a playground when he was four, when a little girl turned round, saw Auggie and screamed, and Auggie covered his face with his scarf. He remembers going out to dinner with another boy who had a facial difference, and strangers looking at Auggie, then at the other boy, then at him, working out what was wrong with his face too. He remembers asking to go to a different friend's house the next day so it would not happen again. And he remembers exactly what he decided that afternoon. Being friends with Auggie could be hard sometimes.
He never lets himself off for any of it. That is rather the point.
Do know before you hand it over that the dog dies at the very start. It is not a twist. She is old and unwell and she is put to sleep, and it is told gently, by a boy who is very keen to tell you he is not going to cry about it. A child who has just lost a pet may find those pages sit close to home. There is also a lot about being stared at, and some children will recognise that more than you would like.
If this one lands, they should have Auggie's own side of it in Wonder, which we have as well. Auggie tells that one himself, at ten, on his way into a proper school for the first time in his life.
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