Wonderstruck

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.

About the Author

Multi-award-winning illustrator Brian Selznick was born in New Jersey in 1966. His interest in art began at an early age: His family claims that on visits to his grandmother, three-year-old Brian would fashion dinosaur sculptures out of tinfoil he'd been given to keep him out of trouble. "Even in kindergarten," Selznick recalled in an interview with Scholastic Books, " I remember drawing and having the other kids gather around because they liked what I was drawing." He took art classes after school and studied at The Rhode Island School of Design.

Although he thought he wanted a career in theatrical set design, after graduation Selznick decided he would like to try illustrating children's books. He went to work for a prominent (now defunct) Manhattan bookstore called Eeyore's, where he learned about the business and put his art to use painting the windows for holidays and special events. Around this time, he wrote and illustrated his first children's book, The Houdini Box. His manager and mentor at Eeyore's helped find him a publisher. The book came out in 1991, while Selznick was still working at the store.

Since then, Selznick has illustrated many other award-winning children's books, including Andrew Clements's Frindle, Pam Muñoz Ryan's When Marian Sang, and Barbara Kerley's The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. But his crowning masterpiece is an ambitious project entirely of his own creation, a groundbreaking 500-page tour de force that combines the elements of a picture book, graphic novel, and film. Published in 2007, The Invention of Hugo Cabret follows the adventures of an orphan who secretly lives in the walls of a Paris train station, as he tries to complete a mysterious invention left by his father. Intricate, innovative, and utterly spellbinding, the story was nominated for a National Book Award and received the coveted Caldecott Medal, America's top prize for children's illustration.

Selznick divides his time between Brooklyn, New York, and San Diego, California.