In Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels, there is a line in Frank McConnell's comments introducing The Kindly Ones that expresses so well the power of visual storytelling: 
 "The Furies...chase down [Dream's] life throughout this book because he killed his son, Orpheus; at Orpheus' request, to be sure, but nevertheless, he has killed him...After he has left the sanctuary of the Dreaming, the fairy Nuala...asks him the question that may be the central secret of the tale. "You...you want them to punish you, don't you? You want to be punished for Orpheus' death." And the next frame, Dream's response, is simple a wordless, tight close-up of his tortured face. (That's an effect, by the way, that neither novel nor a film could achieve with the same force, since a novel would have to describe his face, and a film could only give us an actor trying to imitate that bleak mask of regret. The comic...gives us the thing itself...)" 
 I had several moments of goosebumps while reading this book that reminded me that I was seeing "the thing itself." Brian Selznick's narrative art is equally as good as it was in 
 The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and the plot, if possible, is even better, threading together two stories, two protagonists, and two timelines with more echoes and reflections than I could possibly appreciate in one reading. The research that he did (on a huge array of topics) is showcased in the historical detail of the images as well as the extensive resource list at the end. As I was reading the final Acknowledgements pages, he mentioned that a book involving kids in a museum had to credit From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler, and that he'd added many references to it throughout Wonderstruck. I missed that on the first reading, but now I have a whole new way to study the book when I read it again! 
 Kids will be clamoring for this, and I can't wait to give it to them!