Wonderstruck (book)

Wonderstruck (2011) is a U.S. juvenile fiction novel written and illustrated by Brian Selznick, who created The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007). In Wonderstruck, Selznick continued the narrative approach of using both words and illustrations, this time separating each style in its own story and weaving them together at the end.

Ben’s story starts in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota in June 1977. He was born deaf in one of his ears. Ben’s mom, Elaine, was the town librarian, but died in a car crash. He now lives with his aunt and uncle a couple miles across Gunflint Lake from the house he grew up in. Ben has never known his dad, but feels a pull to find out who he was. Ben discovers a bookmark in his mother's book, Wonderstruck inscribed to his mother that ends with the words "Love, Danny." Ben thinks Danny must be his father and proceeds to call the number listed on the bookmark. As he is calling, a bolt of lightning hits his house, travels through the phone line and causes him to lose his remaining hearing. He wakes up in the hospital, unaware of where he is. A short time later, he decides to run away from the hospital and journey to New York City, eventually hiding out in the American Museum of Natural History. While at the museum, he meets Jamie, whose father works at the museum. Jamie takes him on tours of the back areas of the museum and helps him to hide in an unused storage room. Ben is still determined to track down his father, so he leaves the museum to locate the bookstore listed on the bookmark he found in his mother's book that was written by his father. Once there, he encounters Rose and they try to piece together how they might be connected.

Rose's story starts in Hoboken, New Jersey in October 1927. She is kept at home with visits from a tutor because she is deaf. Unhappy and lonely at home, she runs away to New York City to see her idol, actress Lillian Mayhew. In New York, Rose travels to the theater where Lillian Mayhew is performing. She sneaks in and is found by the actress herself, who we learn is actually Rose's mother. Mayhew is furious, despite Rose telling her that she came because she missed her. Mayhew threatens to send Rose back to her father, so Rose runs away again. This time she goes to the American Museum of Natural History. She is found there by her brother, Walter. He takes her back to his apartment and promises to speak to their parents. At this point, Rose's story skips forward 50 years, and we see her as an older woman entering a bookstore. It is there she meets Ben. It is then revealed that Rose is Ben's grandmother, and Danny was both Rose's son and Ben's father. Rose takes Ben to Queens and leads him into the Queens Museum of Art where she tells her story. Rose then shows Ben an extremely detailed mini New York City that she hand-made for the "World's Fair" in New York, in 1964. Also she explains how Danny met Ben's mother, Elaine, and how Ben's father died from heart failure.