Ben's story starts in Gunflint, Minnesota in 1977. His mother is gone and he is living down the road from his childhood home with relatives. He misses his mom and hates sharing a room with his cousin. In an attempt to escape he goes back to his home, bringing back the memory of what his mother planned to do for his upcoming birthday. This leads him to New York City and the American Museum of Natural History while in search of his father.
October 1927 in Hoboken, New Jersey finds a young girl's a passion for a silent movie actress, Lillian Mayhew. The girl loves silent films. They are just like her life, silent, for she is deaf. With her mother out of town, she lives with relatives, but she is unhappy. She runs away to her mother and to New York City.
Selznick does an absolutely amazing job of using two different forms to tell a story. He shows the true meaning of a picture representing a thousand words. With just his illustrations the girl's story comes to life sometimes even more so than Ben's.
How the stories connect is a bit of a surprise. I thought I knew, but I didn't know what was to come. I like the ending. It's ties together two wonderful stories in a neat way.
Brian Selznick is the Caldecott Medal Winner for his book The Invention of Hugo Cabret and he shows with Wonderstruck the award was just.
I won this book in a giveaway and read it for pleasure. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review in any way.
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