Customer Reviews

Wonderstruck

5 star:		(135)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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'.

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.

Two stories, set fifty years apart; interwoven. One told through pictures and the other told through words.

The first story is of Ben, a young boy in the 1977 who just lost his mother and sets out to look for his father. The second story follows Rose, a young girl from 1927's New Jersey who sets out to look for her idol, a movie star.

Both children's search take them to New York City. Both children - deaf - are struggling to find what they are looking for in a world where hearing is normal and sometimes taken for granted. In a sense, they end up mirroring each other's search and face similar hardships. How their lives intertwine in the end, though I was able to guess, was still very bittersweet.

I enjoyed the illustrations immensely. Brian Selznick sets out to tell a story through his pictures and he succeeds. The details in some of the pictures were amazing. I found myself looking forward to Rose's story even though I loved reading Ben's.

Brian also gives the reader a glimpse into Deaf culture, a culture that I've never experienced, and opened my eyes to a different lifestyle. I appreciated the way he told the story, giving the reader a glimpse into a world that some might not be familiar with. The story also echos with the longing we all have to belong somewhere, to be a part of something.

Wonderstruck is, at it's core, a story of acceptance and community. It's quite relatable and because of this, I think many people will enjoy reading it.

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

I opened this book with an almost giddy feeling of anticipation, knowing I'd love it but not knowing quite what to expect. It's more fun if you don't know too much, so I'll try to share my excitement without revealing plot details.

Wonderstruck weaves together two stories. One is told with words, the other with masterful drawings. Ben Wilson and Rose Kincaid are separated by 50 years, but they have some things in common. Both are longing for a missing parent. Both have lost their hearing. They're about the same age. And both leave home on a private quest. Rose lives in 1927, and Ben lives in 1977. Discovering how they come to occupy the same space fifty years apart, and find the comfort they seek, is your journey through Wonderstruck.

In his exquisite pencil drawings, Brian Selznick creates Rose's world with a perfect combination of detail and shadowy suggestion. The facial expressions, especially the eyes, are most impressive. I also loved the detail in the architecture and other features of Rose's time period. The way Selznick sets the scene with clothing, cars, advertisements, museums and other landmarks made me want to be there with Rose in 1927 New York City.

Ben's story is told in words, and it touches on some important themes. Ben's enthusiasm for the wonders of nature opens up that world of discovery in exciting ways. Through Ben we also see how a child aches for a lost parent, and the wishful thinking that follows such a loss.

Deafness plays a large part in how the story unfolds, and Selznick has done his homework. How might the world be different for a deaf child? For Ben, there's the difficulty with communication, and also the disorientation of being in new surroundings while living in a silent world. He's in a big, unfamiliar city, and his confusion is magnified by his inability to hear the noises that should warn him of danger. What a relief it is for him when he finds a friend who is not only patient enough to communicate in writing, but even teaches him a little sign language.

Wonderstruck is recommended for Grades 4 and up. For the intended youthful audience, it deserves the full five stars. Just examining the details in the 460+ pages of drawings would have captivated me for hours as a child. For adult readers this is closer to a four-star book. My adult mind picked out some holes in the plot that I never would have noticed when I was a youngster.

Brian Selznick broke all paradigms with The Invention of Hugo Cabret--a thick chunkster of a novel that is more than half pictures. A story for the older elementary reader (and up) that is filled with beautiful pictures that help tell the story? Unheard of.

Wonderstuck follows this same pattern, and I loved it!

I read this book in one day (3 sittings of 30 or 40 minutes each). This isn't like me, but I raced through the pictures and text to see what would happen.

The story follows two different characters living in two different eras set in two different towns. We first meet Ben Wilson who is 9ish years old in 1977 and living on Gunflint Lake, Minnesota with his aunt and uncle and cousin, after his mother's death. He decides to run away to find his father who he's never met.

The second part of the story is told completely in pictures. Rose is a 9ish year old girl living in 1927 in Hoboken New Jersey.

These two kids share some amazing parallels. They are both deaf. They both run away from home, and they both end up in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Obviously you have to suspend some disbelief, but what child can't do that? And in fact doesn't want to do that as they let fiction transport them? This adult sure did.

At the end of the story, the author gives some notes, and gives a hat tip to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, as he says that any work in which runaway kids end up in a museum should. Then he challenges the reader to find more parallels, which was fun for me to ponder.

I recommend this book for 3rd or 4th grade on up. There are some mature themes, such as the question about who Ben's father is, and the idea of children being (or at least feeling) unloved. Though I think my own 2nd grade son would enjoy parts of this story, I want to wait for him to read it until he can fully appreciate all elements of this wonderful book.

My 8th grade daughter, who loved Hugo Cabret was quite interested in reading this one right away, and she enjoyed it.

I was torn between turning the 637 pages of Wonderstruck as fast as I could to find out what happens next and wanting to linger over the marvelous illustrations. Wonderstruck is a book meant to be experienced over and over again, at the very least so that one can pore over every intricate detail of the artwork.

I love the way the alternating stories are told: one purely in image and one purely in prose until they merge towards the end. I kept trying to figure out how the two individual narratives set in different eras would eventually come together to form one story but Selznick successfully kept me in delighted suspense throughout the novel. Selznick is undoubtedly a unique alchemist of word and image but Wonderstruck also has its poignant substance.

The two protagonists, Ben and Rose, are lonely and in search of belonging to some place or to someone. In Ben's case (1977), his beloved mother just died and he is lost without her. In Rose's case (1927), she idolizes a famous actress, Lillian Mayhew, and keeps a scrapbook of her life. Their situations keep them isolated, even from well-meaning family members. Each decides to run away: Ben, to find the father he never met and Rose, to see Lillian Mayhew. Their journeys take them to that wonderland for kids of all ages: New York, and in a place that sets imaginations afire: The American Museum of Natural History.

As to what happens next, this is the only hint I'm going to give: In the afterword Selznick acknowledges that he was very much inspired by E.L. Konigsburg's The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and sprinkled references throughout Wonderstruck, daring the reader to find them. Another excuse to reread.)

"Ben remembered reading about curators...and thought about what it meant to curate your own life... What would it be like to pick and choose the objects and stories that would go into your own cabinet? How would Ben curate his own life? And then, thinking about his museum box, and his house, and his books, and the secret room, he realized he'd already begun doing it. Maybe, thought Ben, we are all cabinets of wonders."

If you've ever visited the American Museum of Natural History (or if you haven't, here's your chance!), if you love illustrated novels, if you just want to be entertained by a biblio cabinet of wonders - read Wonderstruck!

Similar to his earlier book, Wonderstruck mixes text and image in a complex and substantive fashion. Here, we have twinned story lines. The first involves Ben, a young teen growing up in Gunflint Lake Minnesota. The time is the 70s and his mother has just been killed in a car accident. Since he's never known his father, Ben is forced to move in with his aunt and uncle (whose house is within sight of his own). Almost immediately in the story, Ben discovers some tantalizing clues about his father and then almost as immediately loses his hearing in sudden fashion. He runs away to try and find his father in NYC, where the obscure clues seem to lead. Suddenly, the reader is whisked away to an earlier (50 years earlier) NYC and the story of a young deaf girl who runs away in search of her Broadway idol, a young actress we see news clipping and photos of in the girl's bedroom. The reader then progresses through the novel, going back and forth between these two stories: the boy's in text, the girl's all in images.

Eventually, as one might imagine, the two story lines stop running on parallel tracks and eventually converge, though the reader is given lots of intriguing clues of what connections there might be before all is revealed. The events and the visuals are often dreamlike, surreal, a bit askew or mysterious, as with Ben's discovery of a diorama of wolves from Gunflint Minnesota the Museum of Natural History where he ends up staying for a few nights (and if that sounds familiar, don't worry--Selznick tells us From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiller is a direct inspiration). Sometimes, admittedly, the coincidences come a little too easily or frequently, and while the dreamlike nature excuses some of that, it doesn't make it feel at times a little too easy.

I would have liked a bit more to Ben's character--he felt a little pale to me. Interestingly enough, that wasn't the case with the girl, whose text-free story often had more emotional impact. That isn't to say Ben's had none, but I confess what I liked most about his story was trying to connect the dots to the earlier one.

When the two stories do mesh, they come together smoothly, perhaps a little predictably at that point (my nine-year-old called it a few sections beforehand), but in a beautifully poignant fashion-both in language and image, though again, I'd have to see more so via image.

Wonderstruck is truly a lovely book and it has a bit of an elegiac feel to it even for its happy (though a bit bittersweet) ending: with its focus on an actual book and found objects and the musty dusty back rooms of a museum. I enjoyed it with just a few niggling issues, and it kept my son intrigued throughout--we read it aloud together and the mix of text and picture make it a perfect vehicle for doing so.

Well recommended

I got an advanced reading copy of this book at Book Expo America from the publisher. I had been been wanting to read The Invention of Hugo Cabret for some time, but hadn't gotten around to it. When I saw that Selznick was coming out with a new book, I was very excited to read it. This was a wonderful book filled with beautiful drawings and a heartwarming story.

This book tells two storylines, one via pictures and one with traditional writing. The first storyline is written and is set in the 1970's where a boy named Ben (who has lost his mother and never knew his father) flees his home on the Gunflint Trail in MN for New York City; he is trying to find his father based on some clues he found in his mother's stuff. The second storyline is told in wonderful pictures. This storyline is set in the 1920's and tells about a deaf girl named Rose who wants nothing more than to run away from home to live in NYC.

The way the two stories unfold is wonderful. They are both set in different times with different people, but they still mirror each other as they unfold. Eventually they entwine in a way that is fabulous, heartwarming, and clever. This is definitely a coming of age story of sorts.

With the two stories being set in the past, the story portrays a sort of nostalgia. Both of the characters (Rose and Ben) are easy to relate to. Both of them are trying to follow their dreams and do what their hearts' desire no matter how tough things get.

Both stories end up in the Museum of Natural History in New York; you can tell that Selznick did a lot of research to make sure that he got all of the details in the museum right. It was fun to read about this museum after visiting it back in May. Another theme throughout this story was being deaf and how you deal with it; both Rose and Ben have trouble hearing. Again, you can tell that Selznick did a lot of research into deaf people and how teaching for deaf people has changed over time.

The story ends well and is wrapped up very nicely. It is such a fun and creative way to tell a story that not only spans the ages, but is full of adventure and the message to follow your dreams. Sleznick includes information on the research he did for this book and a full bibliography in the back; there was a lot of research done!

Overall I was very impressed with this book. It is so well done. The drawings are spectacular and tell a magical story that entwines nicely with the written story. I loved how the stories are set in different eras but manage to mirror each other. I loved how the story is about following your dreams and finding friends in unexpected places. The research done to write this book was phenomenal too. I will definitely be picking up Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret and any books he writes in the future. This book is a keeper and highly recommended for all ages.

My son and I just finished reading wonderstruck. We were looking forward to reading it because we really liked Hugo Cabret. While Wonderstruck does have some excellent pictures, by the end of the story we were pretty bored. It starts off interesting, with enough mystery to keep you reading. But the plot kind of fizzles. As another reviewer points out, it depends on a sequence of unbelievable coincidences. The relationship between the main character Ben and his friend Jamie comes off contrived and overly sentimental. There are some really nice pictures to support the story, but ultimately the story itself is just not that captivating. We gave two stars since we didn't like it, but didn't hate it.