The Marvels: List 2

by Brian Selznick
Two separate stories—the first told in illustrations and the second in prose—combine to create a marvelous whole in this book from the Caldecott-winning author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

This list covers pages 457–524 in the 2015 Scholastic edition.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3

Here is a link to our lists for The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.
40 words 78 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. imposing
    impressive in appearance
    Through an imposing blue door, Joseph entered the lady’s sitting room.
  2. portrait
    any likeness of a person, in any medium
    A large portrait of a woman posing beneath curtains in a theatre hung above a white fireplace.
  3. elegant
    refined and tasteful in appearance, behavior, or style
    Joseph looked again at the elegant woman in the painting above the fireplace.
  4. recognize
    perceive to be something or something you can identify
    He almost didn’t recognize the boy who stared back at him from the other side of the glass.
  5. astonishment
    the feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising
    To his astonishment, he saw a nineteenth-century horse-drawn carriage, as if it had been conjured by the house itself from the mysterious sounds Joseph had been hearing.
  6. mysterious
    beyond ordinary understanding
    Without Blink, or any hope of seeing him again, all Joseph had left, it seemed, was this mysterious house and its links to the distant past and to a boy he might be related to named Leo.
  7. assortment
    a collection containing a variety of kinds of things
    The horse was dark and shiny, outfitted with black leather and an assortment of brass fittings and worn ropes.
  8. embarrassment
    the state of being uncomfortable because of shame
    Frankie grabbed her cap back from Joseph, who flushed with embarrassment.
  9. survey
    look over carefully or inspect
    Joseph surveyed the damage and was so upset his hands shook.
  10. coincidence
    an accidental event that seems to have been arranged
    “Maybe it was just a coincidence.”
  11. supervise
    watch and direct
    Madge edged closer to them, as if she wanted to supervise their progress.
  12. overwhelm
    overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
    Joseph, overwhelmed by everything, slipped the leather case with the photograph into his pocket and said, “Frankie, you should go now. My uncle might be back soon.”
  13. scenery
    the painted structures of a stage set suggesting a locale
    Actors and crew were scurrying about, getting ready for their scenes and putting scenery into place.
  14. essence
    substance with key properties of its source
    It smelled dusty and alive, a strange combination of sweat and wood and candles and electricity, as if the air still contained the essence of everyone who’d ever walked through the building.
  15. mechanism
    device consisting of a piece of machinery
    Miles of rope crisscrossed the space, running up towards the ceiling, turning on pulleys, and coming down the walls, where weights and other mechanisms held the rigging in place.
  16. gilded
    having the deep slightly brownish color of gold
    Frankie and Joseph made sure both of her eyes were closed before taking a programme and tiptoeing past her, through a set of beautiful gilded doors.
  17. vast
    unusually great in size or amount or extent or scope
    The stage was massive, with vast red-and-gold curtains drawn back to reveal a magnificent make-believe forest with a rolling painted ocean at the back of the wooden deck.
  18. dazzling
    shining intensely
    Inside the dome was a painting of an angel, his great white wings spread out across a dazzling sky, as if captured midflight.
  19. brilliant
    characterized by grandeur
    Maybe every other generation, the ones he’d never known, had been full of brilliant adventurers and romantic dreamers, like himself.
  20. synopsis
    a sketchy summary of the main points of an argument
    He opened the programme and found a synopsis of the play, which he and Frankie read together.
  21. amazement
    the feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising
    He watched in amazement as the statue of the queen raised her arms and welcomed back her repentant husband and grownup daughter.
  22. trance
    a psychological state induced by a magical incantation
    The lights went up as the play ended, and Joseph felt as if he was coming out of a trance.
  23. innocent
    free from evil or guilt
    Time itself had appeared on stage to tell everyone that sixteen years had passed, yet the innocent young prince, like the Little Match Girl, had died for no good reason, something Joseph always hated in stories.
  24. facade
    the front of a building
    I learned much vocabulary from him . . . the facade of a building, the mullion of a window, the coat of arms on a roof.
  25. delicate
    easily broken or damaged or destroyed
    “Be gentle with your uncle. He’s a delicate man, like the teacup, I’m afraid.”
  26. explanation
    making something understandable
    The Latin words seemed to hint at some connection to the secrets Joseph couldn’t see yet, as if the explanation was right in front of him, but the room was dark and he just needed to find the light switch.
  27. amber
    a hard yellowish to brownish translucent fossil resin
    “It’s like ... a moment of frozen time. Marcus in the photograph is like the insect caught in amber. Frozen forever, just like that.”
  28. uproot
    move forcibly from a homeland into a new foreign environment
    My parents have moved from London to Saudi Arabia to Hong Kong to Germany. Everything’s constantly being uprooted.
  29. stable
    firm and dependable; subject to little fluctuation
    He thought about Blink, and how nothing had ever felt stable to either of them except for their friendship, while it lasted.
  30. desperate
    showing extreme urgency or intensity because of great need
    She dreamed she was inside Shakespeare’s world, inside his words, and she found herself desperate to grow up and escape her miserable life.
  31. dialogue
    the lines spoken by characters in drama or fiction
    The man grabbed her hand as it swung towards him and said in shock, ‘My remedy is then, to pluck it out!’ which happened to be the next line of dialogue in the play Mabel was quoting from!
  32. descend
    move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way
    He descended from above to a great cheer, but no one had noticed the huge dark clouds that had rolled in from every direction, and at that moment, a lightning storm struck.
  33. immortalize
    make famous forever
    “He added an angel, with a sword and a lantern, and Billy knew it was his brother, Marcus, who was now immortalized on the ceiling of the theatre...”
  34. encounter
    come upon, as if by accident
    Joseph looked at Frankie again, amazed by how much of the story he’d encountered already without knowing it.
  35. narrative
    an account that tells the particulars of an act or event
    People appeared and disappeared, narratives stopped and started.
  36. resist
    withstand the force of something
    Oberon vowed he’d never become an actor like his father, but the pull of the stage was too strong. It was like a magnetic field he couldn’t resist, and deep down he knew he was a great actor, greater even than his own father.
  37. triumph
    the exultation of victory
    There he spent his days reliving his past triumphs, speaking lines from his great plays to no one at all.
  38. disintegrate
    break into parts or components or lose cohesion or unity
    He was the theatre’s version of Miss Havisham, from Great Expectations, still wearing the disintegrating costume of the faerie king, the role that had catapulted him to glory in his youth.
  39. obsessed
    having excessive or compulsive concern with something
    He loved to draw and grew obsessed with the angel on the ceiling of the theatre.
  40. lucidity
    a clear state of mind
    And sometimes when Leo visited him, Alexander had moments of lucidity, and he’d tell his grandson stories about their family history, about the shipwreck and fire, the abandoned baby, the beloved dog.
Created on Mon Aug 15 16:57:33 EDT 2016 (updated Mon Oct 01 15:29:14 EDT 2018)

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