Wonderstruck

Ben is on a bus headed for New York City. He falls in and out of sleep. Eventually, he notices a stillness around him and wakes. He looks out the window.

In Rose’s story, illustrations show an intricate “Welcome to New York” sign. People are bustling through the city, and Rose is among them with her small suitcase. She looks up at the buildings in awe. She comes upon a newspaper stand, where she sees that Lillian Mayhew is opening on stage in New York the next day. She gets on a bus.

Ben gets off the bus, with no idea the time of day. Everything was dingy and dark in the station. He followed a rush of people outside, thinking about his lost hearing: “They ran so many tests at the hospital and discovered the lightning had damaged his ear drum […] What would life be like if his hearing never came back?” (243).

Rose rushes off the bus in front of the theatre, where Lillian Mayhew’s name is in lights. She sneaks through a stage door in the back of the theatre and makes her way toward the stage. She finally sees her idol, and illustrations show a close-up of Lillian’s face. Soon, Lillian’s face twists, and she glares back at Rose.

The streets of New York are wild, bustling, and colorful, but Ben can’t hear any of it. He gives a man with a dog sleeping on the street his change: “All he could hear in his mind was David Bowie singing about Major Tom” (265). Ben goes to buy a hot dog from a cart, and as he is counting out his bills, a hand reaches toward him.

Lillian Mayhew grabs Rose and drags her back to her dressing room. On a piece of paper, the two communicate in notes. Lillian writes, “What are you doing here?” (274-75), and Rose replies, “I miss you momma” (278-79). Lillian insists that Rose needs to go home, it is too dangerous for her in the city. Rose begs to stay, but Lillian locks her in the dressing room and goes back to work.

Ben is knocked to the ground and loses all the money in his hands. He feels foolish. He begins to walk toward his father’s building, following the numbered streets. A taxi almost hits him, and he gets lost at a traffic circle: “Trying to look in every direction at once made Ben dizzy. Which way was he supposed to go?” (297). A kind woman points him in the right direction, and finally, he arrives at his father’s building.

In her mother’s dressing room, Rose finds a cracked window and wriggles out. She runs with her suitcase through the streets. A two-page spread shows her face looking up in a stream of light. She is free and hopeful.

Ben approaches the building and rings the apartment bell. Eventually, a woman comes out, though Ben can’t understand what she is saying. It is clear, however, that no Daniel lives there anymore. Ben is crestfallen: “After a few minutes, Ben opened the locket and stared into his dad’s dark eyes. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘What do I do now?’” (310). He begins to walk toward the address on the bookmark for Kincaid Books, hoping the bookstore owner might remember a Daniel. It is a long shot. On the way, he finds a beautiful building, unlike anything he’d ever seen: “It looked like a castle from a fairytale” (311).

Rose looks up at the American Museum of Natural History. It matches a post-card she received from a man named Walter wishing her happy birthday. She stands before the building in awe.

Ben is amazed by the museum, though it makes him miss his mother. He keeps walking toward the bookstore address and finds nothing but boarded up windows and an old sign. Ben nearly collapses with grief. A curly-haired boy around his age approaches him, pointing and speaking, but Ben can’t understand him: “Ben’s head roared. He gathered up his things and ran. The heat was unbearable […] but he kept going until he was back at the museum” (321). Ben drops his suitcase and it unlatches, dumping all his belongings. The curly-haired boy returns and hands Ben his fallen copy of Wonderstruck.

Inside the museum, Rose walks through amazing rooms full of totem poles and enormous bugs. The illustrations highlight the splendor and wonder of the museum. Ben is similarly in awe. He sneaks into the museum past a guard and washes his face in the bathroom. He eats a forgotten half-sandwich on a café tray. He begins to wander through the same magnificent halls: “[L]ike a boy lost in a castle, Ben walked through gigantic hallways and down marble staircases. He discovered a herd of elephants […] a whale hovered in mid-air […]” (329).

Rose finds a meteorite in the museum. It is enormous. A sign reads: “AHNIGHITO.” It explains that the meteorite was found in Greenland and placed in the museum in 1902. It is the largest meteorite in any museum in the world. An image offers a close-up of the final sentence: “All meteorites begin their journeys to Earth as shooting stars” (342-43).

Ben sees the meteorite in the center of a room under a glowing light. He thinks of the meteorite that made Gunflint Lake. He thinks, “And if a meteorite was the same as a shooting star, could you still make a wish even after it had fallen to Earth?” (345). 

Rose begins to write a note. It says, “I wish I belonged somewhere” (351). She folds it up and throws it on top of the meteorite. It lands, and she waits.