R.J. Palacio: Hi, my name is R. J. Palacio. That stands for Raquel Jaramillo Palacio, which is my given name. In Colombia, which is where my parents are from, the custom is to have two last names: your father's last name and your mother's maiden name. So Gabriel Garcia Marquez for instance. Garcia was his father's last name, and Marquez was his mother's, but since I grew up here in the United States in New York City, I never did that. I only used my father's last name, so I was always just Raquel Jaramillo, but when it came time to publish Wonder, I thought it would be nice to honor my mother by using my full name, Raquel Jaramillo Palacio, the way it was meant to be. The only problem with that is that it seemed like a bit of a mouthful, so I shortened it to our R. J. Palacio. I know my mom would have liked that.