Rose collects newspaper clippings and pictures of Lillian Mayhew, a silent film star. Her room overlooks the Hudson River and she can see the New York City skyline in the distance. In the 1927 narrative (presented in alternating segments with Ben’s story), a young girl named Rose is in her room in Hoboken, New Jersey. Ben cannot stop thinking about the new clues about his father’s identity so he decides to run away and hops on a bus to New York City. He is now completely deaf and the doctors are unsure if his hearing will ever return. Ben wakes up in the hospital disoriented. As the he hears the dial tone, Ben is struck by lightning from an intense storm outside. The picture is labeled on the back with the name “Daniel.” Ben decides this must be his father, whom he has never met and nervously calls the number on the bookmark. Ben then finds a locket with the picture of a man who shares his eyes.
The bookmark has an address and a phone number written on it. In the pages of the books, Ben finds a bookmark from a store called Kincaid’s Books in New York City.
While exploring his mother’s old bedroom, Ben finds a book called Wonderstruck which is about President Theodore Roosevelt and how he founded the American Museum of Natural History. She agrees to allow Ben to stay in the house for a while if he does not tell her parents about her smoking. One summer night, Ben sneaks into his old house (located very close to his aunt and uncle’s house) to find his cousin Janet wearing his mother’s old clothes and smoking her cigarettes. Ben was born deaf in one ear and has no idea who his father is. Ben’s mother, Elaine, died in a car accident a few months ago and Ben is struggling to adjust. In 1977, Ben Wilson lives with his aunt, uncle, and cousins. The novel shifts from one narrative to the other sporadically and without warning or pattern. The narrative in 1977 is told through basic prose while the 1927 narrative is told in full-page illustrations with no captions. The second narrative takes place in 1927 and begins in Hoboken, New Jersey. The first narrative takes place in 1977 and begins in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota. Wonderstruck is a novel told in two parallel narratives with two distinct styles. The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Wonderstruck.
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