Selznick, B. Wonderstruck:
a novel in words and pictures. New York: Scholastic Press. 2011. ISBN 9780545027892.
What does lightening, deafness, wolves, and museums have in
common? Brian Selznick uses those
elements to tell two stories in few words and copious pictures and keeps us
turning 629 pages before we get to THE END.
Selznik won the Caldecott medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret in 2008. Wonder Struck, published in 2011 has the same
impressive look of a 3 inch thick tome packed with full page drawings that
mimic film in number of frames. The text
tells Ben’s story set in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota in June 1977. The pictures tell Rose’s story set in Hoboken,
New Jersey in October 1927. The two
stories finally merge at the end.
Ben and Rose are both deaf.
However, they share not only the culture of deafness, but also the
culture of abandonment. Ben loses his
mother in a car accident, and Rose experiences physical and emotional
abandonment by her movie star mother and is forced to live with her equally
distant father. Ben’s father is a
mystery to him, but he discovers hope of finding him. In spite of the lightning
strike that robs him of his hearing, Ben sets out to find his father in New
York City. Rose also leaves Hoboken in
hopes of living with her mother, only to be rejected.
Selznick successfully captures Ben’s despair when struck
with deafness when he says in text, “the pain began to slip away and the
silence swallowed him whole.” (Page 177)
Similarly, on the next page, Selznick captures in a drawing Rose’s utter
despair in her silent prison. The despair
of the two protagonists motivates brave journeys which ultimately lead to
resolution for both.
In his acknowledgements, Selznick details his extensive
research and includes his selected bibliography concerning deafness and Deaf
culture, museums and cabinets of wonders, clothing and objects in 1927, stage
and screen, world’s fairs, scrapbooks, lightning, Gunflint Lake, Hoboken, inspirations,
documentary film, and websites.
The Booklist
starred review explains, “Selznick plays with a plethora of interwoven themes,
including deafness and silence, the ability to see and value the world, family,
and the interconnectedness of life.”
Although the story is rich in emotion, warmth and intrigue, the authenticity
of the deafness the children face did not ring as true as I would have
expected. Perhaps it was intentional
that the disability was just a side element to the story, but somehow it left
parts of the story feeling contrived.
Nevertheless, I believe Wonderstruck
will heighten interest in learning sign language among students and can
encourage awareness of any disability and the challenges they present.
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