
Jamie takes him on tours of the back areas of the museum and helps him to hide in an unused storage room.

While at the museum, he meets Jamie, whose father works at the museum. A short time later, he runs away from the hospital and journeys to New York City, eventually hiding out in the American Museum of Natural History. He wakes up in the hospital, unaware of where he is. As he is calling, a bolt of lightning strikes his house, travels through the phone line, and causes him to lose his remaining hearing. Ben discovers a bookmark in his mother's book, Wonderstruck, inscribed to his mother that ends with the words "Love, Danny." Ben thinks Danny must have been his father and proceeds to call the number listed on the bookmark. Ben never knew his dad but feels a pull to find out who he was. He now lives with his aunt and uncle 83 steps from the house in which he grew up. Ben’s mom, Elaine, the town librarian, died in a car crash.

In Wonderstruck, Selznick continued the narrative approach of his last book, using both words and illustrations - though in this book he separates the illustrations and the writings into their own story and weaves them together at the end.īen’s story starts in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota in June 1977.

Wonderstruck (2011) is an American young-adult fiction novel written and illustrated by Brian Selznick, who also created The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007).
