Wonderstruck seemlessly weaves together two stories--one told entirely in words and the other told entirely in pictures. The former is that of Ben Wilson, a boy living in Minnesota in 1977, while the latter is that of a girl named Rose, about whom we know very little except that she is a child living in Hoboken, NJ in 1927. Ben has recently lost his mother and so is living with his aunt, uncle, and cousins in a house just up the street from his home. One night, overcome by sadness and loneliness, he sneaks back to his house, where he finds an old book and a bookmark that lead him to believe that his absentee father is living in New York City. But before he can do anything with that information, Ben is struck by lightning, which leaves him deaf.
His spirit remains unbroken, though. Ben strikes out on his own, hops a bus to New York, and wanders the streets penniless and friendless in search of a father he never knew. Instead, he finds the American Museum of Natural History. I should mention at this point that Ben is something of a collector. One of his most prized possessions is a box that holds mementos of his past and his home--including a few fossils, a bird skull, and one of his baby teeth. In the AMNH, he meets a boy named Jamie, who he manages to communicate with through the use of a pen and paper, and who finds Ben a place to stay while he sorts things out.
Meanwhile, Rose has also set out for New York City to escape her strict father. It is revealed that Rose is also deaf, although I think it's safe to assume that she was not struck by lightning as Ben was. She finds her brother, Walter, who works at the AMNH and who protects her from the dangerous city. Although they are separated by fifty years and almost a thousand miles, we know that Ben and Rose are somehow connected but the nature of that relationship isn't revealed until the very end of the story.
Wonderstruck is an extraordinary story. It's a bit hefty at over 600 pages but it features over 460 pages of original artwork so it goes much more quickly than you would expect--indeed, much more quickly than I would have liked. I wanted to live in Selznick's rich and detailed world and the illustrations were so vivid, despite the fact that they were only pencil drawings, that I wanted to sink into them. The illustrations also combined perfectly with the written word, despite the fact that the two portrayed different stories. For example, at one point, a "hand darted out from behind [Ben]" and on the very next page, Rose is seized by the wrist and dragged away. At another point, Rose leaves a note behind and fifty years later Ben finds a note in the same place, though of course it isn't her note he finds.
(Illustration from Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, copyright 2011)
Best of all, every detail of the story counts. The story is intricate, including bits about the history of museums as well as Deaf culture, but Selznick has done his homework, ensuring that everything he includes in either print or illustration is accurate and authentic. I can't wait to see what Selznick cooks up next!
On a sidenote, Wonderstruck also gets kudos for mentioning David Bowie's "Space Oddity" on a regular basis and for including one of my favorite quotes of all time:
"We're all standing in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars" (Oscar Wilde).
Rock on, Selznick.
Final Grade: A
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