By: GabrielleAdelle
After falling in love with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I was excited to get my hands on Brian Selznick’s new book, Wonderstruck. With the same mediums he used in Hugo Cabret, pencil drawings and words, he tells two different stories in Wonderstuck. Ben’s story is told in words, and Rose’s is told in pictures. Ultimately, those two stories intertwine and we are left holding a pretty wondrous story.
Ben is a young boy living in Minnesota in the 1970s. He’s grieving the recent death of his mother. He lives with his aunt and uncle. One day, he stumbles upon the identity of his father. Desperate to meet him, Ben goes off on a journey to find him. As for Rose, she’s a deaf girl, living in the 1920s. She’s amazed by the movies, and it’s at a time when movies had yet to develop a way to incorporate sound with picture. Her story starts as she runs away from her home in New Jersey and flees to New York to try to meet her favorite movie star. From there, we learn so much about Rose through Selznick’s beautifully detailed drawings.
Selznick takes some more risks with Wonderstruck. One of them is separating the stories the way he does. Ben’s story is told only in words. Hence when I came to end of his part, I was so engrossed that I expected the pictures to follow Ben’s story. I had to make that mental switch every time we got to Rose’s pictures or vice versa. I’ll admit at times, it was a tiny bit frustrating, but not enough to make me stop reading or dislike the story.
I hate to label this as a “risk” because in my opinion, I don’t really consider it one. However, both Ben and Rose are deaf children. Not only do their conditions make the story even more visual, but Selznick is able to introduce us to deaf culture, which not many children’s novels have ventured into yet. He also doesn’t treat deafness as a disability. It doesn’t stop Ben or Rose going after what they want. While others may treat them differently, they refuse to let that stop them. That’s what really made me love this story, the spirit that these two characters had, and the introduction to a culture that many (and even I) aren’t too familiar with.
Museums play a big role in this novel, mainly New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. The illustrations and details are insanely good and wondrous. I’ve been to New York City a couple times and have never been to AMNH. I sort of regret that after reading this book. I grew up going to museums all the time, especially living in Chicago where there are so many. The love shown for museums in this book was something I can relate to instantly. It left me appreciating museums even more.
I absolutely loved Wonderstuck. Selznick can take a very simple story and transform it into something with so much meaning. Wonderstruck is a sweet and fun story. If you loved Hugo Cabret, then you are sure to love this one. If you haven’t read any of Selznick’s books, what are you waiting for? You’re totally missing out!
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