Review Detail

"I wish I belonged somewhere," ~Rose

Being a middle school teacher, I see many young people struggling to find out who there are, where they came from, and where they might be headed. In reflection, isn't that what everyone asks themselves from time to time whether they are 8, 13, or 75?

Imagine being alone in the world,being alone in a world of silence. Imagine searching for loved ones, discovering a world you never knew exsited. This is the world of Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck.

Wonderstruck is wonderfully crafted and illustrated. The illustrations, tells the story of Rose a deaf girl, who sets off on an adventure in New York City in 1927. Through the illustrations the reader is able to understand her story in the silence that covers her world. She is looking for answers- she wants to belong.

In words, we read about an orphan boy, Ben, who travels from Minnesota to New York in 1977 in search of his father, and winds up hiding inside the American Museum of Natural History.

The two story lines give clues throughout the novel providing lots of intriguing clues of what connections there might be before all is revealed in the novel's final conclusion.

I love Wonderstruck's narrators, Rose and Ben, who bring a fresh look to the world around us. This book definitely touched the heart.