Wonderstruck

I started and finished Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck the other day. I thought I was going to put it down and go to sleep but I just kept reading until it was over. It makes you feel so cool to read a 600-plus page book in a day, nevermind that 75% of the book is pictures. For those not familiar with Selznick's work, he is an illustrator who won the Caldecott Medal for his novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which I just learned is being turned into a movie. His books use illustrations to help tell the story in a way that I don't think had quite been done before, at least not blended with text like he does. His books are very cinematic. What's cool about Wonderstuck is two stories are being told simultaneously, one with pictures, the other with words and the stories later become intertwined. Selznick was just in town and my son and two of my friends were lucky enough to get to see him. It sounds like it was a great experience. It had been so long since I'd read The Invention of Hugo Cabret that I didn't break a commitment I'd made, but after reading Wonderstruck wish I would've. I'm officially jealous.