Hello Everyone,
Recently, I have finally been able to read a Brian Selznick novel! After all of the exposure The Invention of Hugo Cabret received by shocking the library community with winning the 2008 Caldecott award, I had intended to read it, yet Wonderstruck was available first at my public library. Wonderstruck has been my reward for completing the coursework for my Master of Science in Library Media Education. Below is my Goodreads review.
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Intrigued by Brian Selznick’s style of format-twisting, I was ecstatic to finally read Wonderstruck. This novel alternates between two common formats to tell the stories of two children who grow up 50 years apart. Instead of using words and pictures to work together to tell the two stories, Selznick uses only words to tell the story of Ben in 1977 and only pictures to tell the story of Rose in 1927. Both children are deaf. Ben’s house gets hit by lightning, and he loses the hearing in his good ear, while Rose may have been born deaf. Each child travels to New York City in search of a parent and finds friendship and love. The stories intertwine in a remarkable way. There is discussion and examples of finger-spelling with mention of sign language as two means for deaf people to communicate.