A Different Way to Tell a Story

 Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick is different in the fact that it is told in both words and pictures. Amazing pictures at that. Brian Selznick draws all the pictures in the book himself, and the drawings are absolutely fantastic. Now, this book doesn’t come out until September (a perk of being in BBYA), but it is definitely something for you to look forward to. It may be a thick book, but it is a very, very quick read. I attribute that to the fact that it’s told in mostly pictures.

The story follows two different deaf children from two different time periods. One was born deaf and one became deaf after being struck by lightning. Rose’s (the child born deaf) story was told in the pictures and Ben’s story was told in words. It made it easy to tell who was talking and who wasn’t, and I quite enjoyed it. I also thought how Brian Selznick intertwined their two stories was very clever. After reading it, you realize that it was kind of obvious from the beginning, but you don’t realize that the first time through. It is a fantastic piece of writing….and drawing.

The drawings are what really put this book over the edge, at least in my opinion. Here’s one example of a fantastic drawing from Wonderstruck:

This book is absolutely filled with these drawings, and they’re all just as amazing as the others. I loved seeing all the details in the pictures, Brian Selznick really put a lot of effort into each and every picture. This is what I loved about his other book as well, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The pictures in that novel are absolutely amazing as well. I wish that I could draw nearly as well as him. It takes a lot of practice to get that good, and I admire him for telling a story through these pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is also being made into a movie, I saw a preview for it before the Harry Potter movie. It’s called Hugo and it looks like a pretty good movie. At least from the preview…I thought that about Eragon and look how that movie turned out.

Well I guess that’s all I have to say about Wonderstruck. What will I be reading next? Sidekicks by Jack D. Ferraiolo.