Wonderstruck

From Goodreads:
From Brian Selznick, the creator of the Caldecott Medal winner THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, comes another breathtaking tour de force.

Playing with the form he created in his trailblazing debut novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick once again sails into uncharted territory and takes readers on an awe-inspiring journey.

Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.

Set fifty years apart, these two independent stories--Ben's told in words, Rose's in pictures--weave back and forth with mesmerizing symmetry. How they unfold and ultimately intertwine will surprise you, challenge you, and leave you breathless with wonder. Rich, complex, affecting, and beautiful--with over 460 pages of original artwork--Wonderstruck is a stunning achievement from a uniquely gifted artist and visionary.
My Rating: *****

Absolutely gorgeous. I loved this in every possible way. First off, Brian Selznick is a genius. It is so fun to read his books (have you read The Invention of Hugo Cabret?) because of the mix of pictures and text. It feels like a movie. No. Like a comic book. But not. Beecause it has the literary feel of a classic. It's just. EVERYTHING.

I was sucked right into the story and every little detail was so engrossing. I kept waiting, desperately waiting, for Ben and Rose to meet up, because their paths kept crossing. And when they finally did, it was so not what I was expecting. It was more and it blew me away.

I loved Ben, his loneliness and his struggles with learning to handle life as a deaf person. And Rose. Rose is just the most beautiful character I've met in a long time.

So, each Brian Selznick story revolves around some theme. In Hugo, we got a lot of cinematic history, which I found interesting, but I also have very little outside interest or knowledge of the subject. In Wonderstruck, it's museums. Do I ever love museums. I always have. I've wanted to run away and live in a museum since I first read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler when I was who knows how old.

As I was reading I kept thinking about how much the story reminded me of The Mixed-Up Files, and after I finished (and while I was still sighing from the gorgeousness of the story) I read the acknowledgements at the end and Brian Selznick says that he did it on purpose, that any story about museums would have to be a tribute to The Mixed-Up Files, and that he'd hidden references of it throughout the book.

!!!

So, I went back and looked for more and found more.

Sheer genius.

Yeah. I loved this. Highly recommended! It doesn't take long to read and you will never regret reading it!