Wonderstruck

Brian Selznick came to Willow Glen Middle school tonight to talk about his new book Wonderstruck. He gave a wonderful presentation explaining how he took all his ideas and inspirations and crafted them into this book over a period of 3 years. Similar to The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the story is told through both words and pictures. What makes this book different is that he is telling two separate stories - one through words and one through pictures - which come together in the end. He was inspired by a film he saw called Through Deaf Eyes, which is about the history of deaf education and deaf culture in America. He was also inspired by a class he audited about the history of museums and includes many references to the book From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg, and a great chunk of the story comes from his desire to draw a lightning strike. You can see a preview of the book and a video about the book at wonderstruckthebook.com. Mr. Selznick also shared with us some of his experiences in Hollywood as his book The Invention of Hugo Cabret was being made into a movie. He showed us a trailer, which you can see here, and he told us that the film is very faithful to the book, which is very good hear! He gave a very interesting talk and when one of the kids in the audience asked how he became a successful artist, he answered that he is always working at. He said if you want to be good at a thing, you have to keep doing the thing. So whatever it is you like to do and are good at, keep doing it!

Here is a picture of me getting my book signed:

And here is a picture of his shoes because a lady at Hicklebee's told me he would be wearing silver shoes, and sure enough, he was!

While I was waiting for the presentation to start, I started a sock:

Because I finished a pair last night: