Wonderstruck

1. Wonderstruck

Book: "Wonderstruck" by Brian Selznick
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... wonderful!
Goodreads link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/233749803

This is a wonderful book. It's a kid's book (well, pre-teen-ish), but it's a great read for adults as well. Wonderstruck achieves the creative two-fer: different and good.

Wonderstruck tells two stories simultaneously. One is a regular, old prose. The other story is told in pictures. The kicker is, of course, the two stories are intertwined in fun and interesting ways.

Part of Wonderstruck takes place in NYNY. The book discusses something called the New York Panorama, which is a huge model of New York City built for the 1964 World's Fair. I'd never heard of it before, and (google google) the panorama is a real thing. It's on display at Queen's Museum (www.queensmuseum.org/exhibitions/visitpanorama), and it looks absolutely amazing:

"The Panorama is the jewel in the crown of the collection of the Queens Museum of Art. Built by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, in part as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure, this 9,335 square foot architectural model includes every single building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs; that is a total of 895,000 individual structures."

I read Wonderstruck before Ty did, so we'll see if he likes it as much as I did.

2. School choice

Here's a great story on Ted Forstmann, the founder of the Children's Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for kids to attend private or parochial school:

wsj - Forstmann's Not So Little Idea

QOTD

For years, no more frustrating belief has existed in American domestic politics than the possibility of giving inner-city children a better education. Against the public-school monopoly, sustained forward movement has seemed impossible. That may be changing. This year at least 13 states passed some form of school-choice legislation. Notably, Indiana's new voucher program is letting parents use public funds this fall to send their children to private, mostly religious, schools.
- Daniel Henninger, wsj - Forstmann's Not So Little Idea

Huzzah to Ted Forstmann and school choice!
yow, bill