The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Bibliography

Selznick, Brian. 2007. THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET: A NOVEL IN WORDS AND PICTURES. Ill. by Brian Selznick. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0439813786


Plot Summary

Hugo is an orphan who lives within the walls of a Paris train station in the 1930’s. Hugo maintains the clocks in the train station, and tries to stay hidden. Hugo is working to repair an automaton, a mechanical man, which his father was repairing when he died. Hugo is convinced that if he can get the automaton to work it will write a message from his father. When Hugo is caught trying to steal a windup mouse from a toy vendor in the train station, events are set in motion that will give Hugo a family and reunite a famous inventor, artist, and movie maker with his long lost passion.

Critical Analysis

This is a book unlike any other; part picture book, part novel, part graphic novel. The story is exciting and fantastical on its own with hidden passageways, mystery, magic, and incredible machines. The pen and ink drawings don’t just illustrate the story, they tell the story. Series of drawings, each drawing zooming in on a particular detail, carry the plot along in much the same way that a good movie does. Occasional movie stills are interspersed with the drawings and take you by surprise. Each drawing and movie still adds to the plot, although the significance of the movie stills are not revealed until near the end of the book.

Review Excerpts

Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. “Here is a true masterpiece—an artful blending of narrative, illustration and cinematic technique, for a story as tantalizing as it is touching.”
School Library Journal: Starred Review. “With characteristic intelligence, exquisite images, and a breathtaking design, Selznick shatters conventions related to the art of bookmaking”

Connections

I chose to review this book because I was curious to find out why my daughter was so fascinated with it. She checked it out from the school library in 4th grade, and again in 5th grade, then it went to the top of her Christmas list. My daughter is not a prolific reader, so I was amazed that she would read a 533 page novel over and over again. She told me that the “artisticness and creativity” was what she liked about it. This book will appeal to upper elementary school children, even the reluctant readers.

Other books by Brian Selznick:

Selznick, Brian. 2008. THE HOUDINI BOX. ISBN 1416968784
Selznick, Brian. 2001. THE BOY OF A THOUSAND FACES. ISBN 0064410803