kWonderstruck by Brian Sellznick 634 pages

There is a lot to wonder about while experiencing this title. Selznick, the unconventional winner of the Caldecott medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret (on which the current Oscar nominee, Hugo was based) has created a book that is half novel/ half graphic novel with a dual time line. No wonder it took him 634 pages to complete his vision. The wordless graphic novel follows a young deaf girl searching for the actress mother who had abandoned her. The other half - all text and no illustrations - is about an orphaned boy's search for the father his mother refused to talk about. The two stories connect in a surprising way. A true tour-de-force. If you read this don't skip the Acknowledgments which help explain his inspiration and tells the lover of literature about hidden shout-outs to some of his favorite works!!