Wonderstruck Author: Visit Amazon's Brian Selznick Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0545027896 | Format: PDF
Wonderstruck Description
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
- Age Range: 8 and up
- Grade Level: 3 and up
- Lexile Measure: 830L (What's this?)
- Hardcover: 608 pages
- Publisher: Scholastic Press; First Edition edition (September 13, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0545027896
- ISBN-13: 978-0545027892
- Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 2.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
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.
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.
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