The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Category: YA Novel Grade: B

Back to the Young Adult category. This is a very popular book right now and is in the process of being made in to a movie. Its a fairly simple story about a boy living in the back passageways of a railroad station who befriends a man named Melies, a real life film maker in the late 19th century who, supposedly, has become something of a hermit operating a toy shop in the railroad station. (Side note - Melies most famous image - one of the first to show the fantasy possibilities of film - was a segment of film where a rocket lands in the eye of the "man in the moon").

What Selznick has done is to produce a book that is half way between a novel and a graphic novel. The intimidating size of the book (almost two inches thick) doesn't affect the reading since almost two thirds of the pages contain hand draw pictures. The pictures are definitely cinematic -- they are sequential views of scenes that tie the text together. Interestingly, the pictures are part of the story, rather than illustrations of the story.

Without the pictures, this would have been a forgettable book. With the pictures it was interesting way to pass a couple of hours. Highly recommended for the 10-14 year old reader.