Wonderstruck [Hardcover]

Brian Selznick (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: September 13, 2011 | Age Range: 8 and up | Lexile Measure: 830L (What's this?)

From Brian Selznick, the creator of the Caldecott Medal winner THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, comes another breathtaking tour de force.

Playing with the form he created in his trailblazing debut novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick once again sails into uncharted territory and takes readers on an awe-inspiring journey.

Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.

Set fifty years apart, these two independent stories--Ben's told in words, Rose's in pictures--weave back and forth with mesmerizing symmetry. How they unfold and ultimately intertwine will surprise you, challenge you, and leave you breathless with wonder. Rich, complex, affecting, and beautiful--with over 460 pages of original artwork--Wonderstruck is a stunning achievement from a uniquely gifted artist and visionary.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

Review

Awards and Praises for The Invention of Hugo Cabret (partial listing):
2008 Caldecott Medal winner
National Book Award Finalist
#1 New York Times Bestseller
New York Times Best Illustrated Book
Quill Award Winner
Borders Original Voices Finalist
Los Angeles Times Favorite Children's Book of the Year
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
“A true masterpiece.”–Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Evokes wonder . . . like a silent film on paper.”–The New York Times
“Visually stunning . . . raises the bar.”–San Antonio Express-News
“Shatters conventions.”–School Library Journal, starred review
“Complete genius.”–The Horn Book, starred review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; First Edition edition (September 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545027896
• ISBN-13: 978-0545027892
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 2 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (232 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Comic Books
  • #6 in Books > Children's Books > Arts, Crafts & Music > Art
  • #10 in Books > Children's Books > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction

More About the Author

Brian Selznick is the illustrator of "Frindle" by Andrew Clements, "Riding Freedom" and "Amelia and Eleanor Go For A Ride," both by Pam Munoz Ryan; as well as his own book "The Houdini Box," winner of the 1993 Texas Bluebonnet Award. Mr. Selznick lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

176 of 182 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderstruck September 13, 2011

By Amy Y. TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

At over 600 pages, Wonderstruck is, physically, a brick of a book but it is filled with poetry of intertwining prose and picture and will, hopefully, leave you as 'Wonderstruck' as it left me.

It is 1977 in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, and Ben Wilson is a young boy who has lost his mother. He now lives with his well-meaning aunt and uncle who are struggling financially, sharing a room with a resentful and bullying cousin, Robby, and wishing for the one thing that he can never have. Robby, partially deaf, has grown up in the sheltered world created by his mom, a single mother and librarian who fed his fascination with outer space and covered their fridge with her favorite quotations, and she isn't coming back.

"The North Star was the last star in the tail of the Little Dipper, and the book said that travelers had used this star for centuries to find their way when they were lost.
"If you are ever lost," his mom said when he showed her the book, "just find the North Star and it will lead you home."
His mom smiled, and pointed to a bulletin board next to her desk. Unlike the refrigerator at home, it had just one quote taped to it.
Ben read it out loud: "'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.'"
Because his mom was the town librarian, Ben was used to being surrounded by quotes from books, many of which he didn't fully understand. But this one struck him as particularly strange." (p.21-22)

One night, while looking up at the stars from the window of his cousin's room, Ben sees a light in his mother's window that, for him, is the beginning of a journey to find what has always been missing from his life.

Interspersed with Ben's story is that of a young girl, told only in pictures. Her story begins enigmatically- a small girl sitting at a desk, surrounded by models of skyscrapers which appear to be made after the view from her window of the 1927 New York City skyline. Why does she write a note with the words "Help Me" on it? Is she a prisoner in this room where she must have spent so many painstaking hours creating the models around her? Why does she seem fixated on a famous actress, enough so to climb down the tree outside her window to sneak off to see one of her silent films at the movie theater?

Selznick has intricately woven the two stories together- two separate stories that parallel one another so completely they help to tell the other, eventually merging into one larger image. This story will grab you by the heart, break it and then put it back together again and make it want to sing. It is lovely and different- both a work of literature and a work of art.

When you pick this book up and flip through it, it will appear to be a sort of overblown picture book. As you read, however, you will find that, while there are more pages of pictures than of text(I mean that seriously- there are 460 pages of artwork out of the 600+, so if you are not interested in a book with a largely graphic component, this may not be for you), the story is richly layered and full of small, important details, both in words and pictures.

Even though you will likely find this book classified among the young reader's section and it is a story about two children, the book is like a 'Cabinet of Wonder' that Ben reads about in one of his mother's books- an ornate piece of furniture "with dozens of tiny doors and drawers and hidden spaces filled with a nearly infinite variety of amazing items". Adults should find themselves more than sufficiently challenged to delve into all the symbolism and fine details. Kids and adults will be captured by the compelling prose and beautiful pencil drawings- I went back and looked at various pictures often several times, sometimes scanning for more clues, more details, but often just to marvel at the story unfolding in front of me.

I cannot wait to share this with my 8 and 11 year-old daughters- my 11-year-old has already absconded with it but I think we will be reading it again, storybook style, as a family over the next few days.

This is the kind of book that provides a strong argument against getting rid of 'real' books in favor of e-books. I know this will be among my more treasured volumes and will remain on my shelf, even as I cull other books from the 'herd'. I hope that readers will not pass on this because it looks too much like a 'children's book', really, I believe it is an 'everyone's book'.

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awestruck at "Wonderstruck" September 17, 2011

By James Hiller TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Many of my friends are just discovering Brian Selznick's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, perhaps because of the movie coming out in a few months time. In that delightful tale, we are whisked away to a Parisian train station, a boy with a few secrets, an even more secretive marvelous machine, and the redemptive powers of it all. Selznick somehow managed to blend a few of my favorite things in that story (trains! silent movies! kids!) into quite a modern and engaging story. The question is: would lightening strike again? The answer is, I'm so happy to report, a resounding yes. "Wonderstruck" is a blessing, a marvel, another masterstroke from this author/artist.

In this book, we meet Ben, deaf in one ear, mourning the loss of his librarian mother from icy roads in Northern Minnesota in the 1970's. Living with aunt and uncle now, Ben longs to unlock many of his own mysteries, from his dreaming about wolves to the identity of his father. Ben starts his journey by returning one night to his house, in which going through his mother's things, he uncovers many things she had kept hidden from him, which soon launches his quest. In a second story, told not through text but pictures, we meet Rose, a girl living in 1920's New Jersey with views of New York City, who is starstruck by a silent film actress and longs to see her. Wonderstruck tells and shows the stories of these two people in ways that surprise and delight the reader through the story, none of which shall be revealed here.

Selznick does many things in this book that, beyond the marvelous story he tells, show true craftsmanship. First, as it was true with Hugo Cabret, his illustrations are heartfelt and glorious. As an artist, he understands the importance of the eyes, and in each of his drawings that have characters in them, you are immediately drawn to them. It's so reflective of silent films, in which the performers told the stories with their eyes. Secondly, he starts Ben's and Rose's stories in two different ways: Ben uses words, Rose uses pictures. While the stories are occurring in different decades, he skillfully blends the end of one part of the first story, and seemingly starts the second one at a similar spot. I didn't notice he was doing this until halfway through the book, and by then, I was sold on his brilliance.

Wonderstruck manages to take some more of my interests and blends them together: New York City, museums, dioramas, and Minnesota (that's where I was born). In fact, as I was reading this book, on my coffee table sits a book about the dioramas in the American Museum of Natural History: Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History. It's odd how life arranges itself to coincide with stories. Finally, a friendship forms between Ben and another boy (details not to be revealed here!) that so touched me, that it brought out the theme that Selznick always dwells on: relationships.

I can't recommend this book highly enough; it's filled with honest people, real emotions, and at its heart, the human relationships we all strive to thrive upon. This is the book of the year.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacks some of the verve and guileless charm of Hugo Cabret October 28, 2011

By Miss Print VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

In 1977 in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota Ben's mother just died. Ben has to share a room with his annoying cousin who makes fun of him for being born deaf in one ear even though his old house--the cottage he shared with his mom--is right down the road. Ben is drawn back to the cottage as strongly as he is to the wolves that chase him in his dreams. When a clue about the father he's never met points to New York City, Ben knows he has to follow it.

In 1927, Rose is suffocating at home with her father in Hoboken, New Jersey. All Rose wants is to be able to go out by herself, like the other kids, and to watch Lillian Mayhew in silent films. When Rose learns that sound is coming to the movies and that Lillian Mayhew is starring in a play right across the river in New York City, how can she stay away?

Will New York City reveal its secrets for Ben and Rose? Will either of them find what they're searching for in Wonderstruck (2011) by Brian Selznick?

Wonderstruck is Selznick's second book told in words and pictures like his Caldecott winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret. In this book Ben's story in words intertwines in surprising ways with Rose's story told through pictures.

Although the format is still brilliant and the story is once again clever and utterly original Wonderstruck lacks some of the verve and guileless charm of Hugo Cabret. The story is messier with a more immediate sense of loss and details that never tie together quite as neatly as they did in Selznick's earlier novel.*

New York's American Museum of Natural History plays a prominent role in this story adding a nice to dimension to the story that will make it especially appealing for some readers** but Wonderstruck felt very busy as though it was tackling too much in one book.

That is not to say that Brian Selznick is not a genius. He is--that fact is beyond debate. He combines words and pictures in a new way reinventing the whole idea of printed stories and blurring the line between prose fiction and picture books. His books are also always filled with historical details and facts that are well documented in a bibliography at the end of the story. Wonderstruck is a particularly find pick for anyone with an interest in New York City or museums.

*I'm thinking particularly of Jamie's behavior in the book. Also the fact that Ben never felt much of a loss after the lightning strike. Did anyone else find that odd?

**Like everyone who went to my grade school in 1993. Our building had asbestos so for a few months while it was being removed my entire school was bussed to the AMNH and we had classes there. We ate lunch under the whale every day. True story.

Possible Pairings: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler by E. L. Konigsburg, Holes by Louis Sachar, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli