Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Wonderstruck
by Brian Selznick
I think Brian Selznick's works are absolutely amazing, both in concept and execution. In this book, he tells the story of two different characters--a young boy who is deaf in one ear and gets struck by lightning and loses all hearing, and a young girl who is entirely deaf. The boy's story is told through words. The girl's story is told through images; the pictures tell her story and don't serve as supplemental illustrations (i.e. if you skip over them, you'll only be reading the boy's story). But you would never skip over them, because they're so beautiful! The same style Selznick showed in Hugo Caberet, comes through here. It's like you're watching one of the silent pictures shown in the book, like the camera zooms closer and closer or further away as you go from page to page. The images are inviting and emotion-packed.
The two characters live in different time periods, but they share some similarities, apart from their disabilities. Each has a need to venture to New York City. Each is trying to find him/herself. Each mentions lightning and wolves and storms. Each end up in a museum. The two parallel stories are interesting and inviting. I found that I wanted the book to keep skipping back and forth from one to the other because I wanted to know what happened next and didn't want to wait--it was almost like I was reading two books at one time! And the twist at the end is terribly obvious, but I didn't see it coming! I really felt for both of the characters. The stories and images were sweet, touching, soft, and stunning.
There are a lot of other things that the book brought to light--how movies could be experienced by people who could hear and people who were deaf until talkies came out. The cabinets of wonder that were early museums. The details behind museum displays. And more. I also really enjoyed the nod to The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a book I adored as a kid. Apparently there are many references to the book within Selznick's. I couldn't find any angel statue in the museum drawings, but I did spot a card catalog as I was reading that made me think of the book before I even got to his acknowledgements :-)