Hello everyone!
I am your English reading coach, Minhee Teacher.
Welcome back to our reading journey through the wonderful book,
Wonder.
Today, we are diving into Part Two, which is titled Via's
Galaxy.
Up until now, we only saw the world through Auggie's eyes.
But today, we are changing our camera lens.
We are looking through the eyes of his older sister, Via.
Let's look at this part of the book like a movie director
planning three quick scenes.
In Scene One, the camera shows young Via and Auggie playing at
home.
To Via, Auggie is just her cute little brother.
His face is just his face, and she does not think it is strange
at all.
In Scene Two, the camera pans out.
We see strangers staring at Auggie on the street, gasping in
shock.
Suddenly, Via sees her brother through the eyes of those
strangers, and it hurts her deeply.
In Scene Three, the camera follows Via to her first day of high
school.
She is sitting alone, realizing her old friends are changing and
drifting away.
She loves her brother, but she secretly wishes she could just be
Via, not always the sister of the boy with the different face.
Let's zoom in on a very important line Via says.
She says, I never used to see August the way other people saw
him.
To understand this, imagine you have a favorite, old, cozy teddy
bear.
It has a missing button eye and a ripped ear.
To you, that bear is perfect because you love it.
You do not even notice the missing eye.
But one day, a friend comes over and says, oh, what a scary,
broken bear!
Suddenly, you look at your bear and think, oh, does it look
scary to others?
That is exactly how Via feels.
For years, Auggie was just her sweet brother.
But as she gets older, she notices the shocked faces of
strangers.
She realizes her family's normal is not the world's normal.
She feels a mix of deep love, fierce protection, and a little
bit of sadness.
Why does Via feel this way?
Let's explain this simply.
Think of Via's family like a solar system.
Auggie is the sun in the center because he has big medical
needs.
The parents and Via orbit around him like planets.
This is their family galaxy.
But planets need their own space too.
Via loves her brother, but orbiting the sun all the time can get
hot and tiring.
She wants to have her own orbit, her own dreams, and her own
friends.
Loving someone does not mean you have to disappear.
It is okay to want your own space.
Via is not being selfish; she is just growing up.
Let's look at some useful words from Via's world that we can use
in our own lives.
Our first word is galaxy.
A galaxy is a huge group of stars.
In this book, it is a metaphor for a family world where everyone
circles around one main person.
You can say, our family is like our own little galaxy.
Our second word is protect.
To protect means to keep someone safe from harm.
It is like holding an umbrella over a friend to protect them
from the rain.
Big sisters often try to protect their little brothers.
Our third word is burden.
A burden is something very heavy to carry, either physically or
emotionally.
For example, carrying a huge backpack up a hill is a physical
burden.
Loving someone can sometimes feel like a burden when you have to
worry about them all the time.
Our fourth word is apparition.
This is a big, dramatic word!
It means something that appears suddenly, like a ghost.
To shocked strangers who are not used to seeing him, Auggie
sometimes looks like an apparition.
Our fifth phrase is drift away.
This means to slowly stop being close to someone, like two boats
floating apart on water.
When you go to a new school, old friends can sometimes drift
away.
Now, let's practice speaking.
I will say a sentence, and I want you to repeat it right after
me with real feeling.
Let's start.
I never saw him the way other people saw him.
It is hard to protect someone you love all the time.
I want to be seen as just me, not only as someone's sister.
Our family is like our own little galaxy.
Loving someone does not mean you forget about yourself.
Wonderful job!
Your English sounds so natural when you put real emotion into
the characters' words.
Before we finish today, here is an open question for you to
think about.
Can you love someone very much and still feel tired of their
problems sometimes?
How do you balance caring for your family with chasing your own
dreams?
Think about this, and next time you open your book, try to look
at the world through Via's eyes.
You did amazing today.
See you next time!