Selznick, B. (2007). The Invention of Hugo Cabret. New York: Scholastic Press. 0439813786 This Caldecott winner redefined what a picturebook is. Over five hundred pages long, The Invention of Hugo Cabret interweaves illustrations and text to create deeper meaning, many deeper meanings. Set i... more

Selznick, B. (2007). The Invention of Hugo Cabret. New York: Scholastic Press. 0439813786 This Caldecott winner redefined what a picturebook is. Over five hundred pages long, The Invention of Hugo Cabret interweaves illustrations and text to create deeper meaning, many deeper meanings. Set in Paris in the 1930s, Hugo Cabret is an orphan living in the walls of the city’s train station, winding the clocks after his alcoholic uncle has disappeared. Involving magicians, silent films, dreams, trains, imagination and family, this books seeks to show the interconnections among various objects and people to create meaning and a fabulous invention. While working in a museum, Hugo’s father, also a watchmaker, had discovered a mechanical man that a magician would have used to impress audiences in a show. The watchmaker becomes obsessed with trying to repair the machine. After his father dies in a fire, Hugo is taken in by his uncle and decides to take up his father’s work on the mechanical man, guided only by his father’s old notebook. That is, until the notebook is taken by an angry old shop owner in the train station. Having caught Hugo stealing mechanical parts, the old man takes the notebook from Hugo. To regain it, Hugo must partner with the goddaughter of the old man. The book is split into two parts, in similar fashion to how some older movies contained two acts. I have read this book three times. Each rereading has revealed more connections among the various elements of the text. Despite this, it is the presence of the illustrations that make this story extraordinary. Activities to do with the book: This is a wonderful book to share with students to encourage them to seek connections and make meaning of the text. Since the book is so huge, but also consists of so many illustrations and pages only half-filled by text, it can bolster young or struggling readers’ confidence in their ability to read. This book could be used to trigger lessons about Western culture in the 1930s. Students could research the history of movies, trains, magic shows, and even the rise of the Nazi party. Favorite Quotes: “I want you to picture yourself sitting in the darkness, like the beginning of a movie. On screen, the sun will soon rise, and you will find yourself zooming toward a train station in the middle of the city” (Introduction). “But another story begins, because stories lead to other stories, and this one leads all the way to the moon“ (p. 255). “If you’ve ever wondered where your dreams come from when you go to sleep at night, just look around. This is where they are made” (387). For more of my reviews, visit sjkessel.blogspot.com.

Love, love, loved it! I read it on a car ride and think it's fantastic. I'm so glad I bought the hardcover. This is a book I will cherish and recommend. The storyline is a bit like the inner workings of a clock. The little gears of character the individual characters, their backstories, and t... more

Love, love, loved it! I read it on a car ride and think it's fantastic. I'm so glad I bought the hardcover. This is a book I will cherish and recommend. The storyline is a bit like the inner workings of a clock. The little gears of character the individual characters, their backstories, and the forward moving plot all fit together and work to produce a masterpiece of a book (in my opinion.) I particularly liked the reference to an old movie I watched with my dad when I was little. He liked seeing the very old black and white silent movies, and I found them delightful. The old movies and clock gears are also characters (in a sense.)

This gorgeous book even caught the eye of my own 10-year-old reluctant reader. It's sparked many conversations with fellow writers and it was a pleasure to read. My favorite illustrations are the ones in the bookstore. I can practically smell those fabulous stacks. My official review can be found ... more

This gorgeous book even caught the eye of my own 10-year-old reluctant reader. It's sparked many conversations with fellow writers and it was a pleasure to read. My favorite illustrations are the ones in the bookstore. I can practically smell those fabulous stacks. My official review can be found here:http://www.theedgeoftheforest.com/middle_grade.shtml

The Caldecott Medal was announced yesterday for "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," by Brian Selznick. I'd just finished reading (assimilating?) the book, which is an artful arrangement of text and graphics. Interestingly, the book was a candidate both for the Newbery Medal, for a written novel, and the... more

The Caldecott Medal was announced yesterday for "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," by Brian Selznick. I'd just finished reading (assimilating?) the book, which is an artful arrangement of text and graphics. Interestingly, the book was a candidate both for the Newbery Medal, for a written novel, and the Caldecott, for a graphic illustration book, showing a new interest in a greater blending of the two mediums for telling a story. Unlike a graphic novel, with its steady progression of graphic panels, or a typical illustrated novel with perhaps only a graphic plate introducing each chapter, 'Hugo' is interspersed with multiple pages of text followed by one and two page spreads of artistic, shaded black and white drawings. Sometimes the drawings taken together illustrate only fleeting seconds in the action of the storyline, like successive still frames of a motion picture. Indeed, part of the storyline deals with the lost career of a French cinematographer dating from the early years of motion pictures. Hugo, a young boy, lives in the apartment of his uncle, which is buried in the labyrinthine inner passages of the massive central train station in Paris. Hugo's father has died in a fire at a museum where he worked, and Hugo has been taken in and trained by his uncle, to assist him in maintaining all the clocks in the train station in good, accurate condition. However, the uncle has mysteriously disappeared, and Hugo struggles to keep the clocks running. He does not want to report his uncle's disappearance for fear he'll be turned out of the station, but he has to pilfer his food from shop owners in the station just to survive. In addition to his timekeeper duties, the mechanically talented Hugo is trying to restore a mechanical man, an automaton, that his father found in museum discards and gave to him. The automaton, a gear-driven marvel that can write and draw pictures, becomes the key to the mystery surrounding Georges Melies, the famous cinematographer, now a poor, novelty shop owner in the train station, and his adopted daughter, Isabelle, Hugo's newfound friend. Five hundred pages of story and art that go together seamlessly and in just a couple of evenings of intriguing reading.