Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick is about Ben, a young boy who grew up without a father and recently lost his mother to a car accident, and Rose, a young deaf girl growing up during the 1920's.  Ben had hearing loss in one ear, but was rendered completely deaf after his house was hit by lightning while he was on the phone.  Ben was on the phone that night hoping to locate his long lost father.  He had gone back to the house he'd shared with his mother, just down the lake from the house he was living in with his aunt and uncle, when he saw a mysterious light inside.  Finding only his cousin, Ben decided to stay awhile and look through his mother's old things.  He made an amazing discovery:  a bookmark with his father's name and information on it!  After waking up in the hospital after the lightning strike, Ben snuck away from his Minnesota town to New York in search of the address and his father.  Upon finding the bookstore from the bookmark closed, Ben heads to the museum, where he finds something startling.  There is a wolf scene there that came directly out of one of Ben's recurring dreams.

Rose hated working with her tutor and snuck to New York to see her mother, a famous actress who had just married another man.  After being rejected by her mother, Rose ventured to the museum in search of her brother, Walter, who eventually took her in.

To find out how the stories of Rose, Ben, and the wolves come together in this amazing tale, read Wonderstruck!  This was a fabulous story.  I love the way it is told through full page illustrations as well as text.  I liked it so much, I finished it in only a few hours.  I just couldn't put it down - I really wanted to find out what happened to Rose and Ben, and how their lives intersected.