4^th Grade and Up

The journey begins at sea in 1766 with a boy named Billy Marvel. After surviving a shipwreck, he finds work in a London theatre. There, his family flourishes for generations as brilliant actors until 1900, when young Leontes Marvel is banished from the stage.

Nearly a century later, runaway Joseph Jervis seeks refuge with an uncle in London. Albert Nightingale’s strange, beautiful house, with its mysterious portraits and ghostly presences, captivates Joseph and leads him on a search for clues about the house, his family, and the past.

If you thought the first two books had peculiar writing styles, this one takes the cake. More than the first half of the book is all illustrations. It only took me 29 minutes to get through all of them. Not bad for over 300 pages.

In The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I knew what was going to happen because I watched the movie first. In Wonderstruck, I was able to figure out the twist before it happened. But in this book, I was confused and in the dark for most of the story. The explanation was a complete surprise to me and made me go, ‘What?!’

I hope this book gets made into a movie like the first two. I want to see how they explain the beginning of the story without any words.

This week’s Weird but True Fact about Old-Timey London

Londoners once believed that coffee could cure sore eyes.

(I hope they drank the coffee instead of putting it in their eyes)

Well, that’s the last Brian Selznick book. I hope you enjoyed them.