The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick
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Book Reviews of The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Book Review: from [...]
Summary: 5 Stars
A boy walks through the train station like a ghost tending to the station's numerous clocks. Orphaned and alone, he travels through the hidden passages of the station making sure the clocks run on time to avoid the notice of the Station Inspector.
He does not like tending the clocks by himself or living alone in the station. He especially hates stealing what he needs. But if he is to finish his work, he has no choice. He has to remain invisible
All he has left of his father is an automaton--a mechanical man--that they were trying to rebuild. Once it is complete, the automaton can be wound up and it will write a note. The boy is certain that the note will answer all of his questions and tell him what to do now that he is alone.
The note is going to save his life.
But rebuilding the automaton is not going to be easy. To complete him, he will need special clockwork pieces from the old man who sell toys in the station. When the old man catches the boy stealing, it seems like he will never finish the automaton or learn its secret message.
The year is 1931. The place: Paris. In a train station in the middle of the city lives a boy named Hugo Cabret. His head is full of secrets and his story is about the begin in The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures (2007) by Brian Selznick.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a lot of things. It's a bit of a book, a bit of a picture book, maybe even part graphic novel. It was the 2008 winner of the Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children. It is 544 pages long. It is a surprisingly fast read.
The most important thing to remember about this book is that it will not be completely different from every other book you've ever read.
Selznick seamlessly blends pictures and words to create a story that is simultaneously literary and cinematic. Set in the era of early cinema, Selznick's illustrations capture the essence of film stills in book form. The book design is original and often stunning. That is not to say that there is anything superficial about The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Selznick brings depth to both the written and visual elements of this story.
At the same time, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is an informative and entertaining story. Hugo's journey itself is fascinating, to have that story combined with the story of Georges Melies--one of the real pioneers of modern cinema--sets this book apart as something really special. A must read for book lovers and scholars of film and cinema alike.
If you want to see Brian Selznick talk about the book and its inspiration you can watch the video found on the book's Amazon product page.
Possible Pairings: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, You Don't Know Me by David Klass, The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg, Sender Unknown by Sallie Lowenstein, Clockwork by Phillip Pullman
Book Review: A rich sensory experience...
Summary: 5 Stars
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, is a children's novel weighing in at an intimidating 533 pages, but the reader brave enough to dive headlong into its pages will find a multi-layered text that consists of not only a delightfully written tale, but rich illustrations that take over the telling of the story at regular intervals. Selznick's creation navigates the grey area between picture book and graphic novel in what certainly constitutes a visual and narrative achievement and a truly original book.
Hugo is a 12-year-old boy strapped with responsibility beyond that which a child should have to shoulder. After his uncle--a hopeless drunk in charge of tending the station's clocks--disappears, Hugo takes it upon himself to maintain the clocks in hopes that his uncle won't be missed and he can keep his dwelling and enjoy the freedom of coming and going, living within the walls, and repairing an artifact cherished by both Hugo and his late father. The artifact at the center of the tale is a forgotten automaton discovered among the dust and rot of a museum storage room. It is a mechanical man, pen in hand, poised to deliver a message; Hugo feels certain that if he can repair the automaton by using his late father's notes, the mechanical man will write a message from beyond the grave. Hugo resorts to stealing toys from the toy booth in the train station, and soon finds himself working off his debt to the shopkeeper, a man with secrets of his own. What follows involves a stolen notebook, an oddly familiar drawing, unlikely friends, the magic of silent film, and a giant in cinema, Georges Melies (the most recognizable of his films being A Trip to the Moon or Le Voyage dans la Lune, 1902).
While the novel largely defies categorization, it closely resembles a silent film in many respects, and fittingly so. In addition to the novel's rich illustrations, Selznick employs photos and movie stills to show the reader his story as opposed to simply telling it. In the tradition of graphic narrative (or sequential art, whatever your term of choice), the illustrations play as integral a role in the overall story as the text. The use of illustrations is hardly gratuitous, for the pictures quite literally take over and carry out the narrative when the text disappears. And, really, who would care if the illustrations were gratuitous? They're gorgeous.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is full of magic...for the child reader, for the adult reader, the film lover, the art lover, for anyone willing to give it a go. If you're scared of the size or the concept, don't be. Open your mind, pour Selznick's creation in, and be reminded of the dream of childhood.
Book Review: Like nothing you've seen before
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a terrific book, and there's going to be plenty of talk about it, at least in the children's book world. The funny thing is, it's over 500 pages long, and the writing isn't what's going to get the attention. The pictures, though, they're something else. I'm blathering, yet somehow not saying much at all. Let me attempt to make sense....
This is a story about an orphan living in a Paris train station during the 1930's, a magician, and the movies. It also involves a broken clockwork man (aka: the automaton) that just might be able to write, and just might ocntain a message from Hugo's dead father. The film buffs among you will be intrigued to know that Geroges Melies figures into the plot as well. It's a bit of a mystery, a bit of a fantasy, and also bit of a picture book/graphic novel, which is what makes it really interesting.
Brian Selznick's art in this book just knocks me out. The book is fat and heavy, and all the pages are bordered in black. At least 1/3 of it is artwork. But the thing is, the pictures aren't just for decoration. They meld with the story, and make it move. From time to time, the text just stops, and when you turn the page, the plot continues in these fabulous double-page black & white pencil drawings. The drawings function like a cinematic zoom lens, carrying you right into the vital part of the art/story, sometimes carrying on for ten or twelve pages at a time, almost like a sophisticated flip book. If you skip the pictures, you skip a slice of the story.
Here's an example:
"Hugo reached in and pulled out a large, heavy object. He untied the frayed ropes and unwrapped the fabric that covered it."
And then you turn the page and see Hugo looking at "it". And you turn the next page and get a closeup of "it". And no, I'm not going to tell you what "it" is. Read the book.
If that's not enough, the art isn't simply functional, it's also really pretty. As in When Marian Sang, Selznick is very clever about using light and dark to direct your eye exactly where it needs to go, even in a crowded train station scene. And he's fantastic with faces, particularly in closeup. They simply glow. In various places, the characters talk about old movies, and when they do, you get a double-page spread of a still frame from the real film. It's just plain cool. I hope-hope-hope Amazon does that "Search inside this book" feature with Hugo Cabret so you can really see what on earth I'm talking about.
Put this book on your list of things to do this spring. I don't think you'll be sorry, and you just might be dazzled.
Book Review: Invention of Hugo Cabret
Summary: 5 Stars
Brian Selznick, who previously has done a mixture of writing and illustration, brings us his greatest creation to date: The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The main character, Hugo, is a young orphan who used to live with his uncle behind the scenes of a Paris train station. Then his uncle died, and Hugo now spends his time, in the late 1930s, winding up and oiling, fixing and maintaining the many clocks and devices around the train station, all alone. He is rarely seen and actually lives behind the walls, while thousands of people, day to day, travel to make their trains, or disembark for other destinations.
It is on one day that he gets to know the man who owns the newsagents in the train station, after befriending his daughter. The story slowly unfolds that the man is actually George Méliès, one of the most important people in the early days of film, his most famous piece being about four men who traveled to the moon known as A Trip to The Moon, with the memorable image of the dough-like moon with a face grimacing as the bullet-like ship is shot into its eye. Méliès died in 1938, but it is in this story that he lives on working in obscurity at the newsagents. The story unravels further to reveal an inextricable link between Méliès and Hugo.
While this would be an enjoyable story in its own right, Selznick has created a new medium using not just words, or pictures, or illustrations, but incorporating all three into a chronological miasma. The book begins like a movie, with fifty pages of gray illustration as we zoom in on the train station, into the clock and Hugo Cabret. Then there is the start of the story in word form, but instantly switching to illustration again, and then cutting to photographs where necessary. The difference here is that the illustrations are not revealing the written word, but continuing the story of the word. You cannot skip one, or you miss the story. The Invention of Hugo Cabret uses all these forms to make this not just a book, but a collection of illustrations, and a type of movie or flicker-book that are all interwoven to tell the story of Hugo Cabret and his relationship with George Méliès, one of the original geniuses in the early days of film.
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Book Review: An Inspiring Work of Historical Fiction for Children
Summary: 5 Stars
My six-year-old and I just finished reading Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret. What a fabulous book, in terms of story, illustration and print production. The concept is brilliant: Selznick breaks up the three inter-related mysteries of a young orphan living inside the walls of a Paris train station with movie stills and his own pencil illustrations. The most compelling aspect, however, is the unusual story of a mechanically gifted boy who finds a broken automaton and fixes its clockwork innards in hopes of receiving a loving message. Our love-hate relationship with machines is often the nexus of books that explore the darker side of the equation. Few delve into the beauty and wonder of machines the way this one does.
At the end of the book, Selznick explains his inspiration:
"I had long wanted to write a story about [early movie director] Georges Melies, but it wasn't until I read a book called Edison' Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life by Gaby Wood that this story began to really take shape. The book discussed Melies' collection of automata, which was donated to a museum, where it was neglected in a damp attic and eventually thrown away. I imagined a boy finding those machines in the garbage, and at that moment, Hugo and this story were born."
Selznick helpfully includes a link to the Maillardet automaton, which was built circa 1800 and donated in 1928 to the Franklin Institute:
"When the repairs were completed and the driving motors were set in motion, the Automaton came to life. It lowered its head, positioned its pen, and began to produce elaborate sketches. Four drawings and three poems later, in the border surrounding the final poem, the Automaton clearly wrote, "Ecrit par L'Automate de Maillardet." This translates to "Written by the Automaton of Maillardet." Amazingly, the first clue of the true history and identity of the machine had come from its own mechanical memory!"
The site has pictures of the automaton's sketches and a poem. Apparently, while Maillardet made many automata, only one other could write--in Chinese--and it was King George III's gift to China's Emperor.
What a glorious use of old and new media, including the Internet, by Selznick!