I recently read a wonderful new book by Brian Selznick called The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It is part young adult novel, part comic book, part graphic novel, and part flip book. It's one of the more inventive stories I've come across in a while.
The novel takes place in Paris in the early 1900's and follows a young orphaned boy who secretly lives alone in the long-abandoned back offices of a train station. There he meticulously maintains the clocks of the station, an important job once held by his deceased uncle, but Hugo must continue his work in order to avoid being discovered and taken to an orphanage. He survives by his street smarts, stealing food and other necessities that he finds at the local vendor carts that populate the station. And while survival without detection seems to be Hugo's primary goal, shortly into the book you realize that the has another secret mission.
In Hugo's possession is an automaton, a mechanical man built with old clock parts. The book goes on to say that automatons were once made and used by magicians in the late 1800's and thrilled audiences with their many abilities. The one that Hugo has is holding a pen in its hand. It was apparently built with the intention of writing something. The question is... what will it write? And since Hugo's father was working on repairing the automaton at the time of his death, Hugo thinks that fixing it will deliver some long-lost message from father to son from beyond the grave. Along the way, Hugo meets an elderly toy-maker, who may or may not be a link to the strange automaton. Can the old man help Hugo receive his father's last words?
I don't want to give too much away, but The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a thoroughly enjoyable read. The touching story of a boy longing for his lost father and of a mysterious old man searching for relevance in the world was a great page-turner for my sons and I. We read it every night, pouring over its pages and many illustrations. The book won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for best artwork and its pictures are unique in that they actually tell parts of the story themselves, as opposed to serving as arty decorations for the narrative. The 500+ page book actually has 284 pages of illustrations in it, and they are wonderfully and warmly drawn by the author. A real gem of a book and something my boys and I will remember for a long time.
For more information and for a sneak peak at the opening sequence of artwork, check out the link below. Click on "intro and slideshow."
http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/about_hugo_intro.htm
The novel takes place in Paris in the early 1900's and follows a young orphaned boy who secretly lives alone in the long-abandoned back offices of a train station. There he meticulously maintains the clocks of the station, an important job once held by his deceased uncle, but Hugo must continue his work in order to avoid being discovered and taken to an orphanage. He survives by his street smarts, stealing food and other necessities that he finds at the local vendor carts that populate the station. And while survival without detection seems to be Hugo's primary goal, shortly into the book you realize that the has another secret mission.
In Hugo's possession is an automaton, a mechanical man built with old clock parts. The book goes on to say that automatons were once made and used by magicians in the late 1800's and thrilled audiences with their many abilities. The one that Hugo has is holding a pen in its hand. It was apparently built with the intention of writing something. The question is... what will it write? And since Hugo's father was working on repairing the automaton at the time of his death, Hugo thinks that fixing it will deliver some long-lost message from father to son from beyond the grave. Along the way, Hugo meets an elderly toy-maker, who may or may not be a link to the strange automaton. Can the old man help Hugo receive his father's last words?
I don't want to give too much away, but The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a thoroughly enjoyable read. The touching story of a boy longing for his lost father and of a mysterious old man searching for relevance in the world was a great page-turner for my sons and I. We read it every night, pouring over its pages and many illustrations. The book won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for best artwork and its pictures are unique in that they actually tell parts of the story themselves, as opposed to serving as arty decorations for the narrative. The 500+ page book actually has 284 pages of illustrations in it, and they are wonderfully and warmly drawn by the author. A real gem of a book and something my boys and I will remember for a long time.
For more information and for a sneak peak at the opening sequence of artwork, check out the link below. Click on "intro and slideshow."
http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/about_hugo_intro.htm
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