Review #110: Wonderstruck

Dad:  What did you think of "Wonderstruck"?
Isaac (age 13):  It was.... wonderful.  And striking.
Lily (age 8):  Mysterious.
Gracie (age 11):  There were a lot of mysteries.
Dad:  What is one way this book is like Brian Selznick's other book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret"?
Lily:  They are both big!!!  Super big!
Gracie:  They look like huge thick dictionaries.
Lily:  But you can read them really, really fast.  They are made out of mostly pictures.
Dad:  Who can tell me what the story of "Wonderstruck" is about?
Isaac: You mean "stor-IES."  There are two.  There is one story with words, and there is one story with pictures.  Then at the very end they combine together.
Lily:  They cross paths.
Isaac:  I'll tell you the story about the boy.  I'll tell you the "word" story.  There's a boy whose name is Ben.  His mom died in a car accident, and he doesn't know his father.  He found a bookmark and a locket in his mom's room.  They had his father's name and phone number, and that led him on a big search.
Lily:  Ben had a bad ear and a good ear, but then he became deaf in both.
Isaac:  He had tried calling his dad's phone number, but it was raining and thundering outside...
Gracie:  And lightning-ing!
Isaac:  What do you think "raining and thundering" means?
Gracie:  You didn't say "lightning-ing."
Isaac:  There's going to be lightning if there's thunder.
Gracie:  Lightning-ing...
Isaac:  That's not even a word.
Gracie:  Thundering and lightning-ing.
Isaac:  Ben was talking on the phone, but then he got electrocuted by the... lightning-ing.
Lily:  Lightning goes into his good ear, and he becomes deaf.
Isaac:  Then he ran off to New York to find his dad.
Lily:  Now I'm going to tell you about the girl's journey.  That story is all in pictures.  Her name is Rose and she is deaf.  She felt like nobody could understand her because she was deaf.  She was lonely.  She ran away because she didn't like studying.  She ran away to a museum.
Gracie:  She needed someone to accept her, so she climbed out her window and ran away to New York to find someone to accept her.
Dad:  I see some reoccurring themes here.  People running away from home...
Gracie:  Deaf people...
Dad:  We did this same thing when we reviewed "Hugo Cabret."  We found themes.  Brian Selznick likes to write motifs, doesn't he.  What are some of the reoccurring elements in "Wonderstruck"?
Lily:  Deafness.
Dad:  Stars.
Gracie:  Oh yeah, I forgot Ben likes stars.
Isaac:  New York City.
Gracie:  Wolves.  Ben has a special collecting box with wolves on it.
Lily:  And there are wolves in his dreams.
Dad:  And the museum has a wolf diorama.
Gracie:  Collecting things is another theme.  In his box Ben collected a bird skeleton, a smooth rock and a lumpy rock, a game piece, a turtle made out of seashells, and a locket.
Dad:  Who else collects things?
Gracie:  Curators.
Dad:  Ooo... good word.
Gracie:  A curator is pretty much anyone that collects things.  Like a museum curator.  But Ben learned that anyone can be a curator.  You can collect memories.  Curating is just collecting things and organizing them.
Isaac:  His mom worked at a library, so she helped collect and organize books.
Dad:  And she collected quotes and phrases.
Gracie:  AWWW!  They never told us what it meant!  "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Isaac:  Aww!
Gracie:  It's a quote Ben's mom had saved, but they never told us what that meant!
Dad:  Well, what do you guys think it means?
Gracie:  I have no idea!!!
Dad:  Ben's mom wanted Ben to figure it out for himself.  Maybe the author wants us to figure it out for ourselves too.
Gracie:  He never told us what it meant!  That's going to drive me crazy!!!
Dad:  Let's think about it.  Do you know what a "gutter" is?
Lily:  A punch... in the gut.
(chuckles from all)
Gracie:  It's a thingie on the roof that collects leaves and junk.
Dad:  But I don't think there are people in those kind of gutters.
Isaac:  There are gutters on the road.
Dad:  And who would be laying along the side of the road?
Gracie:  A traveling musician.  Or a hitchhiker.  Or a poor person.
Lily:  A poor person would be sitting in the gutter.
Dad:  So what does it mean if "we are ALL sitting in the gutter"?
Gracie:  We are all poor.
Dad:  We all have similar problems.  But what makes some people different?  It's not that some people don't have any problems...
Lily:  Some of them look at the stars.  They "hope."
Dad:  Remember what Ben did when he found something that came from the stars?
Lily:  He made a wish.
Gracie:  So it means "we all have things that make us sad, but some of us have hope."

Ben's collection box, by Isaac

Rose escapes out her window, by Gracie

wolf diorama, by Lily

Author/Illustrator: Brian Selznick
Published, 2011: Scholastic
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Review #73: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Dad:  Today we are looking at one of my favorite books in the world.
Gracie (age 9):  The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
Dad:  It's by Brian Selznick.
Gracie:  No it's not -- It's by Professor H. Alcofrisbas.
Dad:  Well, that's what the introduction claims.  But according to the cover, it's by Brian Selznick.
Gracie:  Just the cover is written by Brian Selznick.
Isaac (age 11):  Brian Selznick is really creative.
Dad:  Before we discuss the story, tell us about the physical book itself...
Isaac:  I've never seen another book like this.
Lily (age 7):  It's, like.... big.
Isaac:  It's huge.  It's giant.
Gracie: (grabbing a ruler)  It's three inches thick.
Dad:  Thanks for measuring it for us.
Isaac:  Giant.  It's like a 500 page book.
Dad:  Should that scare readers away?  What if they think, "That book is honking huge!"
Gracie:  It's honking easy to read.  We read it in two days.
Lily:  It has tons of pictures.
Dad:  So how about the opposite concern...  If it has lots of pictures, might people think it's only for younger readers?
Gracie:  No.  It's a chapter book for pete's sake.  And big people like pictures too.
Dad:  So this is a book for everyone!
Gracie:  The pictures are very very very very very important to the story.
Lily:  They are black and white like in an old movie.
Isaac:  And the pictures are like a movie itself... the way the pictures zoom in and zoom out, and the angles they show.
Gracie:  The pictures help tell the story.
Isaac:  The words stop, and the author starts telling the story in pictures.  Then the pictures stop, and he starts doing it in words again.
Lily:  Sometimes when it got to an exciting part at the end of the page, we were like "Oo! Where is the picture!"
Dad:  You knew!  When things got exciting, you knew pictures were sure to come!
Lily:  This book is the opposite of boring.  It is wonderful, and glorious, and exciting, and adventurous!
Isaac:  It's a really good mystery book.
Lily:  And there was a big chase!
Gracie:  "Every good story has a chase."  That's what Hugo said.
Dad:  The mysteries that unfold throughout the story are part of the fun.  Can we talk about the story without giving away any surprises?
Gracie:  That's kind of hard to do.  But I guess we've done it before.
Dad:  So, tell us about the story...
Isaac:  It takes place in 1930.  I don't think it takes place in America.  Is it in Italy?
Lily:  Africa?
Dad:  No.  It takes place in France.
Isaac:  Oh.  I was close.  Italy and France are... alike.
Dad:  And tell us about Hugo...
Isaac:  Hugo is an orphan.  He lived with his uncle who fixed the clocks at a train station, and Hugo was his apprentice.
Gracie:  He fixes the clocks from inside the walls.
Lily:  And he lives in a wall.  That would be awesome.
Isaac:  Then Hugo's uncle disappears.  If the station master had found out, he would have taken Hugo and put him in the orphanage.  So Hugo keeps fixing the clocks himself so no one will know.
Gracie:  Everyone calls Hugo a thief.
Dad:  Why do they call him a thief?
Gracie:  Because he is one.  He steals everything.  Milk.  Croissants.  Cookies.  Toys.  Actually, I don't think he's evil -- he needs the food to survive.  And he just takes the toys so he can re-build an automaton because he thinks there is a secret message from his father that will save his life.
Lily:  An automaton is a robot that moves exactly like a human.  Hugo was trying to fix it.  He stole wind up toys so he could take them apart and fix the automaton with their little parts.  There was a pen in the automaton's hand, and Hugo thought it would write a message.  But the automaton actually made--
Isaac:  Don't tell!
Lily:  Awwwwwww....
Isaac:  That's one of the surprises.
Dad:  Who are some of the other characters.  Who does Hugo meet?
Lily:  A little girl named...  What's her name again?
Gracie:  Isabelle.
Lily:  She's beautiful.  Hugo stole a key from her.  So that's another thing he steals!  He's evil!
Dad:  And Isabelle is related to whom?
Lily:  That guy who works at the toy shop.
Dad:  There's a lot of mystery around that old man.
Gracie:  Papa Georges.
Isaac:  He makes little crank-up mice and toys.  He's really grumpy about stuff.
Gracie:  He goes crazy.  He freaks.
Lily:  He found this chest filled with papers.  And when he saw the papers he was like, "No No NO NOO!" and he started ripping them apart.
Gracie:  He freaked out and muttered things like, "I'm a broken thimble...  an unwound watch...  a knotted shoelace...  a bad shirt..."
Dad:  A bad shirt???
Gracie:  "...I'm an ugly baby..."
Dad:  Now you're making stuff up.
Gracie:  Ha ha ha!
Dad:  Did the book make you care about the characters?
Gracie:  I got sad when Hugo smashed his fingers.  And I got sad when Isabella smashed her foot.  And I got sad when the old man smashed his cabinet.  And I got sad when the automaton got smashed!
Isaac:  There's a lot of smashing in this book.
Dad:  The book had quite a few reoccurring motifs, didn't it.
Gracie:  What-the-cabbage is a motif?
Dad:  A motif is a story element that keeps reappearing.
Isaac:  You mean like: "Something caught his eye."
Dad:  No... that's just a writing tic the author probably wasn't aware he had.
Isaac:  The next time we read this book, we should count how many times he writes "Caught his eye."
Dad:  I never would have noticed that, but you guys sure did.
Isaac:  I didn't notice until Gracie mentioned it, then I kept hearing it over and over.
Dad:  But a motif is like a repeating theme or symbol.  Let's go around and see how many reoccurring themes from the book we can name.  If you get stumped you're out.  I'll start:  Trains.
Gracie:  Clocks.
Isaac:  Stealing.
Lily:  Ummmm...
Gracie:  She's out.
Lily:  I'm just thinking!
Isaac:  Fixing broken things.
Gracie:  Gears and machines.
Lily:  Has anyone mentioned clocks yet?
Gracie:  Yes.
Lily:  The moon.
Dad: Greek myths.
Lily:  Eyes.
Gracie:  Movies.  Old movies.
Dad:  Good list!  Now one last thing before we wrap up...  Speaking of old movies, the ones mentioned in this book are actual movies from film history.
Lily:  Like the guy hanging from the clock.
Dad:  Yeah, Harold Lloyd!  We later watched him on YouTube.  What did you guys think of Harold Lloyd?
Isaac:  Funny!
Lily:  He climbed up a building like boop, boop, boop, then he fell and hanged on a clock!
Isaac:  We watched another movie on the internet from the book too.  We saw "Trip to the Moon."
Dad:  The man in the moon gets a rocket in his eye... it's a pretty famous old movie.
Isaac:  We even found movies about automatons on the internet.  They are actually really cool.
Gracie:  The internet rocks.

trip to the moon, by Lily

Hugo and Isabelle, by Gracie


And lastly, Isaac built a cool automaton out of legos!  Although not able to move on its own, all the joints (neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, knuckles) do indeed twist and swivel and bend just like human joints.  It's rather lifelike and eerie the way it moves!

Author/Illustrator: Brian Selznick
Published, 2007: Scholastic
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