Wonderstruck Archives - Stephanie Vanderslice

Lots of really great reads in there, despite the brevity of the list. Wordamour will forever remember 2011 as the year she discovered Nicole Krauss (where was Wordamour living? under a rock?); Great House was mesmerizing. The Architect of Flowers and Quiet Americans, two more riveting, and in the former case, luminously iconoclastic, reads also got the kudos they deserved in other end of year lists. Wonderstruck started slowly but ultimately transported the reader to late 1970’s New York City (one of Wordamour’s favorite times/places) as all the story strands came together as if stitched by an invisble hand. Composing Ourselves as Writer-Teacher-Writers, about Wendy Bishop, was the only “festschriften” of sorts Wordamour has ever read that frequently brought tears.

But as my friend and colleague Graeme Harper likes to say, Onward!

What’s on deck for 2012?

You’ll find out in the The First Book of 2012, coming soon!

Bye y’all,

So this finally came in the mail.

Perhaps one of the most eagerly anticipated packages in a long time. Needless to say, I began reading it immediately.

At first, I was a little underwhelmed, perhaps because the lead up to this book by game-changing author Brian Selznick was so great. More lovely writing than The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I was told. A stunning achievement.

I loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret; I thought the writing was fine the story absolutely enchanting, transfixing. In other words, Wonderstruck had some pretty big shoes to fill and at first, it wasn’t happening.

Sure, the stories, the textual story about a boy in search of his father, the illustrated story about the girl, fifty years earlier, in search of a her mother, were interesting enough but there were no fireworks. Until. . .

The stories began to merge. The Museum of Natural History came into play in a big way with cabinets of oddities and allusions to the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Then there were the references to he 1964 World’s Fair, the Queens Museum and the panoramic replica of New York City that is housed there (I’ve stood before it in awe myself) and finally, the New York City blackout of 1977.

A children’s book, yes, but also a Generation X book if there ever was one, right up there with Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, about growing up in New York City in the ’70’s.

One smile of recognition after another.

People lost and people found. Yes, a beautiful symphony.

Read it, y’all.

2011 The Year in Reading Part Deux: The Actual Books

Wonderstruck at last!

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STEPHANIE VANDERSLICE