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lpcleland's review
5.0
Fantastic! The illustrations draw you in and before you know it you are experiencing what appears to be two separate journeys but are they really? Must read for anyone who appreciates art, anyone who remembers visiting a museum, or anyone who can appreciate a child's sense of adventure. A great book for reluctant young readers. What a sense of accomplishment when they realize they have "read" such a volume of pages.
heathercottledillon's review
5.0
I love Brian Selznik. I love "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." I really really love Selznik's drawings. I didn't think he could top "Hugo," but I think "Wonderstruck" at least comes really close. Not only are the images in this book beautiful, but the story itself is also delightful--well, I think it is. Maybe the oh-so-charming drawings are influencing the way I read it :). Nevertheless, I love everything about this book. It's got adventure, sorrow, and the warm-fuzzies. I had fun trying to put the two stories together and figure out how they intersect. I felt happy and satisfied at the conclusion. Awesomeness! I'm so grateful to my coworker who lent me the advance copy with me so I didn't have to wait until the book actually comes out on September 13!
bibliophile80's review
5.0
Amazing. Living up to "Hugo Cabret" was going to be tough, but this was another visually and literarily stunning tome. NOT just for young adults.
thejazziestbean's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
santersgrotto's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
sumayyaha's review
5.0
I loved how the two stories (Rose in pictures, Ben in words) came together. This was a very good read. I definitely recommend it.
lisamchuk's review
5.0
After his mother's death, Ben is left a little bit lost. While looking through his mother's house one night, he gets indirectly struck by lightening and is left completely deaf. Ben then runs away to New York City to try find his dad. Rose also runs away to New York City to find her mom. With the help of the American Museum of Natural History, Ben and Rose's stories intertwine and everything is resolved in quite a lovely manner.
Ben's story is told through narration, like a novel, but Rose's story is told through the same full page pencil drawings Selznick so deftly incorporated into Hugo. So both stories are told separately side by side, until at one point they collide and mesh together. Selznick really is a master storyteller, and the beauty of this story comes from the way he tells it, not necessarily from the characters or plot. That being said, this is really a story for people like me - those who love books and libraries and museums - as Ben's mother is a librarian and much of the action takes place in the Natural History Museum. It took me back to when I visited it in NYC last year, and I loved the behind the scenes descriptions. And now I want to visit the Queens Museum of Art to see the Panorama!
I wasn't quite as enraptured by this book as I was by Hugo, but it still is an excellent read, well worth your time to enjoy the beauty of the story as it unfolds in this rather unique way. If you're a museum person who loves a good story, you should especially check it out!
Ben's story is told through narration, like a novel, but Rose's story is told through the same full page pencil drawings Selznick so deftly incorporated into Hugo. So both stories are told separately side by side, until at one point they collide and mesh together. Selznick really is a master storyteller, and the beauty of this story comes from the way he tells it, not necessarily from the characters or plot. That being said, this is really a story for people like me - those who love books and libraries and museums - as Ben's mother is a librarian and much of the action takes place in the Natural History Museum. It took me back to when I visited it in NYC last year, and I loved the behind the scenes descriptions. And now I want to visit the Queens Museum of Art to see the Panorama!
I wasn't quite as enraptured by this book as I was by Hugo, but it still is an excellent read, well worth your time to enjoy the beauty of the story as it unfolds in this rather unique way. If you're a museum person who loves a good story, you should especially check it out!
bookph1le's review
4.0
Brian Selznick is an author who really knows how to tug at the heart strings. I devoured his superb “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” and hurried out to see the movie with my 8-year-old daughter. He is just so wonderful at writing evocatively and achingly about love and loss, and the complicated nature of human relationships.
Wonder Struck is no different when it comes to Selznick’s ability to provoke a myriad of emotions in his reader. More than once, I could feel my eyes tearing and my throat aching. The yearnings of his characters are just so painfully, vividly real that it’s impossible not to becoming completely absorbed in their stories. Selznick is the sort of author who seems to empathize with his characters’ every experience, and it breathes such life into them. I’m a voracious reader, but it is a pretty rare experience for me to find characters that strike me as real as those created by Selznick.
Where Wonder Struck differs from Hugo Cabret is that it is two stories in one. I thought there were both advantages and disadvantages to this. For most of the novel, Selznick tells the tale of a young, blind girl living in the silent film era solely through pictures. His drawings are often even more evocative than his writing, and I found the girl’s story very compelling. Conversely, the vast majority of Ben’s tale is told in prose and, while the writing is very nicely done, I found myself wishing that I could have a visual representation of Ben like I had of the young girl. I wanted to know what he looked like, wanted to see his face. There is also a quicker flow to the visual side of the book than there is to the written, so this sometimes made Ben’s story seem to drag just a bit.
My other criticism of this book is that the later parts tend to do too much telling and not enough showing. I think this is particularly noticeable because of the visual aspects of the book, so it was a disappointment for me to have a long narrative explaining how the stories of Ben and the girl converge. To me, this was by far the slowest part of the book, and the unfortunate fact that it came at the end took some of the shine off the beautiful ¾ or so that preceded it.
Still, I find it difficult to criticize the book in this way because it is such a fantastic book. Selznick is a really unique talent, and I hope to see a lot more from him. Few authors have as firm a grasp on the mysteries of the human heart.
Wonder Struck is no different when it comes to Selznick’s ability to provoke a myriad of emotions in his reader. More than once, I could feel my eyes tearing and my throat aching. The yearnings of his characters are just so painfully, vividly real that it’s impossible not to becoming completely absorbed in their stories. Selznick is the sort of author who seems to empathize with his characters’ every experience, and it breathes such life into them. I’m a voracious reader, but it is a pretty rare experience for me to find characters that strike me as real as those created by Selznick.
Where Wonder Struck differs from Hugo Cabret is that it is two stories in one. I thought there were both advantages and disadvantages to this. For most of the novel, Selznick tells the tale of a young, blind girl living in the silent film era solely through pictures. His drawings are often even more evocative than his writing, and I found the girl’s story very compelling. Conversely, the vast majority of Ben’s tale is told in prose and, while the writing is very nicely done, I found myself wishing that I could have a visual representation of Ben like I had of the young girl. I wanted to know what he looked like, wanted to see his face. There is also a quicker flow to the visual side of the book than there is to the written, so this sometimes made Ben’s story seem to drag just a bit.
My other criticism of this book is that the later parts tend to do too much telling and not enough showing. I think this is particularly noticeable because of the visual aspects of the book, so it was a disappointment for me to have a long narrative explaining how the stories of Ben and the girl converge. To me, this was by far the slowest part of the book, and the unfortunate fact that it came at the end took some of the shine off the beautiful ¾ or so that preceded it.
Still, I find it difficult to criticize the book in this way because it is such a fantastic book. Selznick is a really unique talent, and I hope to see a lot more from him. Few authors have as firm a grasp on the mysteries of the human heart.
ec_newman's review
4.0
Not as blown away by this as I was by Hugo Cabret, but still, pretty freakin awesome. I love how Selznick makes history and the time past so much fun and interesting. The pictures are gorgeous and the story is sweet. Highly recommended.