The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Written and illustrated by Brian Selznick.  New York: Scholastic Press, 2007.

The saying "so many books, so little title" aptly describes me and my reading habits.  Now, I'm an avid reader and I love to read, but I always feel like I will never get to read everything I'm "supposed" to.  As a children's librarian, this definitely applies.  Each month, as I catalog the new books, I think "I should read this," but I pass it along for a later date in time, as I already have a stack of books to read on my nightstand.  This applies to this book...I guess several years is later enough!  Winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal and a movie adaptation due in theaters this November, I thought I should finally read this book.

Hugo Cabret is twelve years old and lives in the walls of a Paris train station.  Orphaned and abandoned by his alcoholic uncle, he repairs clocks and steals in order to survive and remain undiscovered.  While attempting to steal a toy, he gets caught by the owner and suddenly his world and the secrets he's trying to protect become exposed.  His life becomes intersected with Papa Georges (the shop keeper) and his goddaughter Isabelle.  Hugo has a notebook from his father that describes how to fix an automaton that his father rescued from a museum before his death.  Hugo is convinced that if he can get the machine to work, it will solve all of his problems.  Unbeknownst to Hugo, Papa Georges also has a secret that is linked to the machine.  How does the notebook, a drawing, a key and a message all connect?  You'll have to read the story to find out!

Please don't let the length of this book put you off from reading it!  I finished this book in a day.  About 300 of its 500 pages are illustrations . The text and the story itself is not complicated or hard to read, so this is a great choice for children ages 7 and up.  The illustrations are done in pencil and are exquisitely detailed.  What I love about illustrations is their part in storytelling and I poured over each one absorbing them as much as the words on the pages.  I am eager to see how they interpret the illustrations into the movie adaptation, since they are such a large part of this novel.

Now that's I've got this checked off my list, what to read next?  Hmmm....perhaps Brian Selznick's new novel Wonderstruck?  I think so.