4^th Grade and Up

Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother’s room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.

The story jumps between two perspectives. One is from a girl named Rose, who lived during the 1920s, and the other is from a boy named Ben, who lived during the 1970s. Rose’s story is in pictures, and Ben’s story is in words. It’s confusing at the beginning, but once you get into the rhythm and get to the right point in the book, you start to understand. I had to flip through Rose’s drawing story a few times to fully understand what was happening.

I finished this book in just three days. Not bad for a 630-page book. It helped that most of the story is told through illustrations. And the illustrations are fantastic. I think Brain Selznick drew all of these pictures with a lead pencil. I’m an artist too, but I could never draw anything like this.

I never thought about reading this book until I discovered it was being made into a movie. I found the movie trailer very confusing, and I wanted to read the book to understand it.

After reading the book, this movie poster made sense. The movie was really great and stayed true to the book. You have to pay close attention to all the details because most of the movie is silent.

This week’s Weird but True Fact about Lightning

The odds of getting struck by lightning in your lifetime: 1 in 10,000.

Tune in next Saturday for another Brian Selznick book.