Wonderstruck

Ben walks to Kincaid’s. It is hot, and he is covered in sweat when he arrives. The store is large and overflowing with books. The counter and shop are empty when he comes in, except for one black cat. He waits, his head in his hands, a wave of nausea coming over him.

Many images show the path of an older woman walking through the streets of 1970s New York. She walks confidently. She arrives at Kincaid books and steps through the door. We see a close-up of her face, warm and smiling slightly. Ben recognizes her as the woman who often visits the wolf diorama. He watches as the woman and an old man, who appeared behind the counter, begin signing to one another. He tries to stand, but his legs buckle beneath him. The old man and woman approach, to help him. The old man gets him water, but the woman is staring at him with an odd look: “It looked like confusion and wonder and sadness, all at the same time” (505). Ben realizes the locket around his neck had fallen open. The woman points to the locket when the old man returns, and they both are startled. In images, Rose strokes Ben’s face, lovingly. She asks, “Ben?” Ben looks back in awe and confusion and bliss.

Ben demands to know how the woman knows his name. She asks about his mother, avoiding the question. He gives her the note he wrote to Jamie, and she holds him after she finishes reading it. Walter agrees to call Ben’s aunt and uncle. Finally, the truth comes out—the book was given to Rose by Walter, and then given to Danny. Rose is M, for mother. Which makes Rose Ben’s grandmother.

Rose and Walter feed Ben, and she agrees to answer his questions. She tells him they can’t be answered in the bookstore: “We have to take a subway ride. It’s a long trip. Are you up for it?” (522). Rose looks sad, but confident. Ben agrees.

Images show a long trip on the Subway to Queens. Rose brings Ben to the doorway of a building called the Queens Museum of Art. She takes out a key.

Rose takes out a pad of paper and begins to write. She explains that she is not accustomed to telling this whole story, and it may take a while. She begins by telling Ben about running away from home. Walter rescued her and helped her enroll in a boarding school for the deaf. There, she met her husband, a deaf boy named Bill. He became a printer, and Rose worked at the American Museum of Natural History making models. They had a baby, Danny, and he grew up making models, too, eventually joining his mother to work at the museum.

Rose worked with Danny for years before leaving to create a miniature version of New York City for the Queens World’s Fair in 1964. Images show the Panorama from many angles. It fills an enormous gallery. Rose tells Ben that she was given the job of permanently maintaining the Panorama after the rest of the fair was dismantled. Rose takes Ben through another small door, and they walk out onto the diorama.

Rose tells Ben about how his father fell in love with his mother. Danny had stayed in the small cabin behind Ben’s childhood home: “He used the word ‘radical’ to describe [your mother], meaning, I think, that she lived completely on her own terms, and he loved that about her” (571). Rose explains, finally, that the wolf diorama was Danny’s first and only exhibition: “Your dad was ill, Ben. He had a heart condition […] a few years after he returned from Gunflint Lake…his heart…” (572). She can’t continue, but she and Ben both understand. They hold each other, sobbing.

Rose then explains that though Danny likely didn’t know about Ben, his story was inside the Panorama. Ben realizes that, in many ways, he had always been curating his own life: “Maybe […] we are all cabinets of wonder” (574). Rose shows Ben the museum she has made of Danny’s life. Artifacts from every moment in Danny’s life are preserved in the Panorama, including a drawing Ben made. He had gone to his father’s funeral before he could remember and made the drawing of the wolf exhibit when he was only a child. Ben realizes the wolves in his dreams were not chasing him after all: “They’d been guiding him, leading him onward, through the snow, to his father” (578).

Rose explains that she and Bill suspected Ben might be their grandson but were never sure. Bill had died two years before. Rose tells Ben how grateful she is to finally know she has a grandchild: “Thank you for being so brave, Rose wrote, Your parents would have been very proud of you” (581).

Suddenly, the lights go out in the museum. A blackout has fallen over the city. Rose and Ben struggle to make their way back to the door without ruining the Panorama. At the entrance to the museum, they find Jamie. Jamie admits he had been following them and was banging on the door, though neither Rose nor Ben could hear. Rose asks Jamie who he is, and Ben replies in sign. Illustrations show a close-up of his hand as he signs “my friend” (608).

Ben explains to Jamie that Rose is his grandmother. He shows Jamie the notebook with the story of his family written inside: “Thinking about all the connections that led him here, Ben marveled at how everything could be traced, like the path on a treasure map […] The world was full of wonders” (609).

Illustrations show close-ups of Jamie, Ben and Rose’s faces behind a blanket of stars. Jamie is worried about getting home in the blackout, but Rose assures the boys that Walter will find them. He knows where they are. Ben thinks about everyone in New York City reading by flashlight. He hopes that he can stay in the city and explore, or perhaps even stay for the summers, like Jamie: “Whatever happened, Ben knew that he belonged here, with his friend, and his grandmother, and millions of other people waiting in the dark for the lights to come back on” (617).

Illustrations show Rose, Ben, and Jamie watching the stars over the city. The graphics zoom in on one shining star in the night sky.