Wonder - Pages 118-132

Auggie mentioned the Cheese Touch back in Part One and said, "At Beecher Prep, I'm the old moldy cheese." Now we learn that the game (and I use that term loosely) is called The Plague. Are you familiar with that term? There have been several outbreaks of the plague, one of which was called the Black Death. Here's a description of what one outbreak did in the 1300's.

The trend of recent research is pointing to a figure more like 45 percent to 50 percent of the European population dying during a four-year period. There is a fair amount of geographic variation. In Mediterranean Europe, areas such as Italy, the south of France and Spain, where plague ran for about four years consecutively, it was probably closer to 75 percent to 80 percent of the population. In Germany and England ... it was probably closer to 20 percent. (quote from Wikipedia, further cited on that site.)

Can you imagine? In places where the death rate was lower, still 20% of the entire population died. In our class that would be six people. In other areas it was from 45-50% all the way up to 75-80%. In our class that's anywhere from fourteen to twenty-four people dying from the plague. 

And THIS is what kids say can happen if they touch Auggie. Do you think they realize the historical significance of the plague? Do you think they realize how horrible it was and that's why they named their game The Plague, or do you think they just used the term because they thought it was funny? How funny is it?

This painting is by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and was painted in 1562. The title of the painting is The Triumph of Death. Remember, it's a painting not a photograph, and it shows a lot of stuff in one image. What parts of the picture show real things from the plague? What parts are symbolic of the time?

Summer and Auggie share what their topics are for Egyptian Museum Day. Auggie gets the Step Pyramids of Sakkara and Summer gets Anubis, god of the afterlife.

Oh, by the way, more shoes. This time they are Summer's UGGs. 

All the students from the school dressed up in Egyptian costumes for museum day. Summer and Auggie dressed as mummies. I'm not sure what exactly they looked like, but here are a couple of ideas.

Ancient Egyptian mummy. Source

Boris Karloff as the Mummy. source

Homemade toilet paper mummy.

Continue to Part Four: Jack.