The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick
|
List Price: Our Price: $14.23 You Save: $10.76 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $13.37 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Book Review: Objet d'art
Summary: 5 Stars
THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET is art of a high order. To start with, this book is a beautiful object. The right dust jacket can definitely sell a book. The graphite rendering of Hugo in extreme close-up gracing the book's spine and wrapping around the back cover is what drew me to the bookshelf in the first place. And upon discovering the book's unusual format, I was hooked. The artwork here does not illustrate the text. Rather it advances the plot. It's a little like watching a silent movie and reading title cards...completely appropriate in a story dealing with the origins of cinema.
The story lives up to the promise of the packaging. It is immediately engaging and ultimately touching. Hugo is the orphaned son of a clock-maker, living in the walls behind a Parisian train station, maintaining the station's clocks, stealing bread and milk to survive, stealing nuts, bolts, and gears to complete a project his father was working on when he died. His secret existence is threatened as his life becomes entwined with a bitter, old man and a bookish young girl. It's part graphic novel, part mystery, part coming-of-age. There are echoes of Pinocchio but with a twist as here it is a lonely boy building an automaton father figure.
This is a timeless book about, among other things, time. This is a book for the ages, and a book for all ages. The story, the artwork, the writing style, the overall design, all first rate parts of a greater whole, like the precisely crafted mechanism of a fine Swiss clock.
Book Review: Imaginative Concept and Brilliant Art/OK Story
Summary: 3 Stars
Kudos to this author for the unique concept of telling part of a story with pictures and part of the story with text. I wish that I could rave about this book, because I think the concept and art are magnificent! The storyline...ok. This amalgam of a picture book and a children's story and an enhanced biography is definitely worth the read. A clockmaker's son is orphaned and lives with his uncle minding the clocks of a large station. When the uncle temporarily disappears, the boy sustains himself by stealing and does the uncle's job to avoid being noticed by the authorities. His main motivation of remaining in the station is to repair a damaged machine to retrieve a message his father may have programmed into the automated robot-of-sorts. The boy continually escapes trouble narrowly and then ends up discovering a someone's secret identity. Lots of questions were left unanswered, the concept of stealing being inappropriate was eventually minimized, and the relationship between his father,the "missing person," and the robot were ultimately confusing. It finished up too quickly at the end and, in doing so, left some loose threads.
Do not be intimidated by the immensity of the book. The majority of the book is fantastic drawings that tell the story far better than the text portions. The expressions are very communicative and the scenes provide suspense and emotion. Five stars for the concept of intertwining a word-less top-notch picture book with a child's text story.
Book Review: A Book Review
Summary: 5 Stars
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik is about a boy named Hugo that goes on an incredible journey to find out what a drawing from his dad's machine means. He faces many questions in his life but this is the biggest one.
The story begins in a train station a small boy named Hugo lives with his father. Hugo has a great talent for inventing. On his birthday his dad takes him to the movies. Hugo's father is always talking about this movie he saw when he was a kid.
Hugo a young boy has set out to find the parts for a machine. Hugo is a boy with great talent. His talent is inventing things such as a wind up mouse. Another important person in this story is George Melies. George is an old man that used to be a little bit of a celebrity.
My favorite part is when Hugo's father's machine is fixed and draws the picture Hugo has been waiting for. The only thing is the picture wasn't by Hugo's father. So then Hugo , and a girl he met set out to find the answers to his questions. The girl he met was hiding the answer from Hugo, and it ends out different then he thought it would be.
I would recommend this book to anyone that likes action books because this author's point is to get you to read more. I think this book was great because it is a mystery , and an action book , and those are my favorite books. This book is a cliff hanger , I could hardly put it down. That is my opinion of this book.
Book Review: A novel book
Summary: 5 Stars
One day driving home, I heard Brian Selznick on NPR saying "his pencil sketches carry the story forward" while referring to 'The invention of Hugo Cabret'. And then the interviewer drew parallels between his opening sketches and the beginning of a movie. That piqued my curiosity about the book.
That very evening I requested the Title from my local library and had the 500-page heavy, black fore-edged book with me in a few days. The size was daunting, it almost matched the latest JK Rowling's output in thickness.
But then the size was misleading. There were pencil sketches, many many many sketches (hence the blackened fore-edges) through out the book - they carry the story forward beautifully (and increase the thickness of the book). For all its thickness, you can run through the story within a couple of hours (but then that way you would miss out on the beauty of those sketches). If you can't wait to get to end, you should revisit the pencil works later..Some of them zoom you in into details - giving you the feel of movie maker's camera moving from an extremely wide angle shot to an extremely close-up one, no cuts in between. Awesome!
The story is fun too. Its about a talented orphan finding a home and a vocation. (100 year old French movies also work their way nicely into the story.) Simple when stated that way, but 'the how of it' is very interesting. If you dig comics and good stories, this one is definitely for you.
Book Review: Delightful
Summary: 5 Stars
Originally I borrowed a copy of this book, but before I'd dipped in too far realized this was one I wanted to own. It's beautifully illustrated and bound, so it's a great addition to anyone's collection. Also, it's a really good story, one I'm sure I'll want to reread someday. In the opening pages we learn through the drawings (before we read a word) that young Hugo lives and hides in a train station in Paris. Meticulously, he sets the station's time clocks -- and when you learn why, your heart will go out to him as mine did. He's a great character, a boy who, when faced with tragedy, learns to live by his wits without losing his dreams or his kind and open spirit. Hugo also is working on the invention to which the title refers. In the course of this, he makes a friend and uncovers the secret of another character. I'd love to say more, but don't want to give away the twists of this lovely, gentle tale. I can say this -- if you're a old movie buff, you're in for some treats as well. Selznick is also the grandson of film legend David O. Selznick's first cousin, and he pays this aspect of his legacy a loving tribute.
This is marketed as a children's book; I read and loved it as a grown up and think many others will feel the same way. The story line and narrative are well suited to kids 9 through 12 or 13, but the size of it -- it's over 500 pages -- might discourage children anyway, as most books targeted toward them are significantly shorter.