Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret; Wonderstruck) once again merges a visual and textual story line to deliver an emotional wallop.
Nearly 400 pages of cinematic graphite images lead readers through five generations of a theatrical family, the Marvels. In 1766, aboard an American whaling ship, a play is in progress: a girl tied to the mast is attacked by a dragon, and an angel comes to save her. A storm approaches. The angel falls, the ship sinks, and the only survivors are the boy who played the tied-up girl and his dog. After a British ship rescues them, they wind up at London's Royal Theatre, where 12-year-old Billy Marvel is adopted by the stagehands. Selznick's images elegantly reflect the passage of time as Billy matures and raises a foundling, whom he names Marcus, for his late brother, the angel who fell. Marcus has a son, who has a son, who has a son, whose story ends abruptly when he attempts to rescue his grandfather from the burning Royal Theatre. Flash forward to 1990 London, where 13-year-old Joseph Jervis has fled boarding school in Cornwall to find his uncle, Albert Nightingale, not knowing he hasn't welcomed visitors since losing his cherished partner to AIDS. Countless details from the story of the Marvels leap into the 20th century as Joseph tries to unravel the mystery of his uncle's East End house that's curiously, poignantly, frozen in time.
Presenting "miracles and sadness, side by side," Selznick asks readers to examine what we know versus what we want to believe, and what defines a family and makes a home. --Jennifer M. Brown, former children's editor, Shelf Awareness