I was buzzing round a bookshop today when I spotted this beautiful book glimmering in the corner of my eye.

I loved Selznick’s previous book, ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ which is definitely worth a read.  What makes both these books so fantastic is that the stories are told through a clever mix of prose and illustrated sections, like this:

The illustrated story within ‘The Marvels’ starts in 1766 and follows the fortunes of a boy called Billy Marvel (the sole survivor of a shipwreck) and the adventures of five generations of his actor family.  The written story begins in 1990 with Joseph, who has just run away from his uncle’s house, and is trying to piece together many mysterious.

This has gone straight to the top of my Christmas list.

Library Girl.