Wonderstruck (original 2011; edition 2011)

The stories of two troubled children, set 50 years apart, eventually intertwine in this stunning masterwork by the author of THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET. In 1977 rural Minnesota, 12-year-old Ben has hearing impairment, and very much misses his mother, who just died. He suspects his father is in New York City, so he runs away to search him out, eventually ending up at the American Museum of Natural History. Fifty years prior, a 12-year-old deaf girl named Rose lived in New Jersey with her father, obsessively building models of New York City and longing for her silent film star mother. She, too, absconds to the city and finds solace in the museum. Ben's tale is told in words, while Rose's is illustrated with black-and-white drawings. With hints of FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER, this wholly original tale will enchant readers.