Wonderstruck

Students, kids, and life-long readers,

Brian Selznick is back with another novel with a similar style to his renowned tale, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  Similar to his other title you will find a giant 600-page book with half of it being beautifully drawn scenes that tell a large part of the plot.

This novel follows two story lines - one told with words, and the other told with pictures.  There are also two different time periods and settings.  Ben Wilson has just lost his mother and starts to have questions about his father whom he knows nothing about.  This curiosity and a Wonderstruck book with a hidden message lead him to take a trip to New York City to see if he can find his father.  The picture part of the story is about a girl named Rose who also has some parental issues.  I don't want to reveal too much about the connection between the two plots lines.

The best part of this novel is how the two plot lines intertwine and the continuous mystery of when the connection will be revealed.  I found it hard to put down because I wanted to find this out.  Also, the pictures are very well done, and often I could be lost in the pictures before he brought back a couple of pages for reading.  It is a completely different style of reading that coincides with his books.  If you enjoyed Hugo Cabret, you should definitely give this a try.

AUTHOR: Brian Selznick

GENRE:  Historical Fiction, Fiction

GRADES: 5-7