Brian Selznick: Hi this is Brian Selznick, I'm the author of Wonderstruck and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about how I came to make the book. And then I'll read a little excerpt to you.

After I wrote and illustrated the Invention of Hugo Cabret, I wanted to figure out a new way to use illustrations in a story, so I thought it might be fun to try to use them to tell a complete story that takes place in 1927 and then use the words to tell a different story that takes place 50 years later in 1977. And I wanted to fill the book with things that I was fascinated by, like museums and deaf culture and the history of New York City. And one of my favorite books, The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

I'm now going to talk about one image from the 1927 story and then I'll read from the story set in 1977. The drawing I'd like to look at is the first image in the book. It's two wolves running through the snow at night. And behind them you can see the Aurora Borealis glowing in the sky. Every drawing I do is done with pencil and I always start with little tiny thumbnail sketches that are sometimes no bigger than one inch long.

And then I do more and more sketches until I work to the final image. A lot of people think that the opening sequence of the book is illustrating Ben's story because when the story begins, he's dreaming of wolves. But if you reread the book carefully, you'll find out that there's actually a different reason we see the wolves here. Now here's a part of the story that takes place during a real night at the museum.

"The museum had closed for the night and it was eerily still. Jamie led Ben down long hallways and through many doors, some of which he had to unlock with his set of keys. Most of the lights had been turned off, plunging everything into darkness. The beam of Jamie's flashlight lit the floor ahead of them. When they came upon a night watchman sitting and reading a book at the end of a corridor, Jamie pulled Ben around the corner and down another hallway. He opened a door marked Electric. Carefully he led Ben through another door to a row of folding seats and pushed gently on his shoulders indicating he should sit. When Ben's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he made out the dim glow from a control panel where Jamie stood. A giant object like a mechanical insect appeared in the center of the room. It turned and spun and suddenly the ceiling lit up with stars. Ben gasped, the Planetarium."