Wonderstruck

Selznick, B. (2011). Wonderstruck: A novel in words and pictures. New York: Scholastic. Waking to a nightmare and seeing how his life has turned upside down, Brian leaves sets out to find his father. Parallel to his personal journey is Rose’s, as she sets off to find her way. Set years apart, each begin their journey to find what they hope to come across, a non-existing father and a dream of meeting an actress with such mystery.

Selznick provides another of his enormous books filled with a combination of text and illustrations to convey a story that young readers will captivate themselves in. The story is detailed in the following two children as they search for the one thing they long for, finding the absent parent in hopes of a rekindling, to the fantasy of meeting the obsession. Although the size of the book can put off young readers, the text is easy to read and grasps. One impact on the story will have readers wondering and wanting to read to find out how being deaf interferes with daily interactions.

The illustrations, filled with numerous shades of whites to deep grays and blacks, Selznick conveys his story of Rose. His illustrations provide simplistic lines and formations of the story, that older elementary students are able to identify the characters and the surroundings, understand what is happening within the story itself. Even though text is not in the illustrations, they are done well that children can analyze the images to understand what is happening.

Reviews

Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011: In a return to the eye-popping style of his Caldecott-award winner,The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick’s latest masterpiece, Wonderstruck, is a vision of imagination and storytelling . In the first of two alternating stories, Ben is struck deaf moments after discovering a clue to his father’s identity, but undaunted, he follows the clue’s trail to the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City. Flash to Rose’s story, told simultaneously through pictures, who has also followed the trail of a loved one to the museum--only 50 years before Ben. Selnick’s beautifully detailed illustrations draw the reader inside the museum’s myriad curiosities and wonders, following Ben and Rose in their search for connection. Ultimately, their lives collide in a surprising and inspired twist that is breathtaking and life-affirming. --Seira Wilson

KIRKUS REVIEW

Brian Selznick didn't have to do it.

He didn't have to return to the groundbreaking pictures-and-text format that stunned the children's-book world in 2007 and won him an unlikely—though entirely deserved—Caldecott medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Weighing in at about two pounds, the 500-plus page tome combined textual and visual storytelling in a way no one had quite seen before. In a world where the new becomes old in the blink of an eye, Selznick could have honorably rested on his laurels and returned to the standard 32-to-48–page picture-book format he has already mastered. He didn't have to try to top himself.

But he has. If Hugo Cabret was a risky experiment that succeeded beyond Selznick and publisher Scholastic’s wildest dreams (well, maybe not Scholastic’s—they dream big), his follow-up, Wonderstruck, is a far riskier enterprise. In replicating the storytelling format of Hugo, Selznick begs comparisons that could easily find Wonderstruck wanting or just seem stale. Like its predecessor, this self-described "novel in words and pictures" opens with a cinematic, multi-page, wordless black-and-white sequence: Two wolves lope through a wooded landscape, the illustrator's "camera" zooming in to the eye of one till readers are lost in its pupil. The scene changes abruptly, to Gunflint Lake, Minn., in 1977. Prose describes how Ben Wilson, age 12, wakes from a nightmare about wolves. He's three months an orphan, living with his aunt and cousins after his mother's death in an automobile accident; he never knew his father. Then the scene cuts again, to Hoboken in 1927. A sequence of Selznick's now-trademark densely crosshatched black-and-white drawings introduces readers to a girl, clearly lonely, who lives in an attic room that looks out at New York City and that is filled with movie-star memorabilia and models—scads of them—of the skyscrapers of New York. Readers know that the two stories will converge, but Selznick keeps them guessing, cutting back and forth with expert precision. Both children leave their unhappy homes and head to New York City, Ben hoping to find his father and the girl also in search of family. The girl, readers learn, is deaf; her silent world is brilliantly evoked in wordless sequences, while Ben’s story unfolds in prose. Both stories are equally immersive and impeccably paced. The two threads come together at the American Museum of Natural History, Selznick's words and pictures communicating total exhilaration (and conscious homage to The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler). Hugo brought the bygone excitement of silent movies to children; Wonderstruck shows them the thrilling possibilities of museums in a way Night at the Museum doesn't even bother to.

Visually stunning, completely compelling, Wonderstruck demonstrates a mastery and maturity that proves that, yes, lightning can strike twice. (Historical fiction. 9 & up)

I had a hard time getting into this books, unlike Selznick’s other novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I enjoy the back in forth of text and illustrations in Selznick’s novels, but it can seem overwhelming in its size to a young reader. That being said, I was able to read it within one sitting.

I would recommend this to my struggling readers who like to read, but still need the illustrations to view when needing a break. This novel allows them to continue the story through the illustrations and take that break many of them need. I could use this for practicing in making predictions and inferences, comparing the two stories of Ben and Rose, as well as find the theme of each story and as a whole.