THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by: Brian Selznick

Bibliography
Selznick, Brian. 2007. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Ill. by Brian Selznick. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0439813786

Plot Summary
This book is a story about life's purpose and the path to finding where you belong. Hugo Cabret is a preteen boy that had to go live with his drunken uncle after his clock maker father died. Hugo is forced to work as his uncle's apprentice (even though he actually does all of the work) at the Train Station and to steal in order to survive. When his uncle goes missing Hugo runs away, ending up at the museum where his father died, only to realize that he has no where else to go. He finds the automaton his father was working on when he died and takes it back to the station with him where he is determined to fix it in hopes that it will give him a message from his father.

The boy steals mechanical toys from the toy store, in order to fix his machine, and is caught by the bitter, old owner. He works for the toy maker to pay back what he has stolen and to get back his notebook with the drawings to complete the automaton. He later finds out that the man was a famous magician and filmmaker. The boy later gets in trouble for stealing and the old man rescues him and makes him a part of his family. So, Hugo found his place in the world and his love of magic and machines.

Critical Analysis
Brian Selznick uses a combination of black/white pencil illustrations and text to create a unique book. This book seems daunting with its 523 pages, however, it is mostly illustrations. The author/illustrator has used brief text followed by several illustrations to tell his story. The text is informational and gives the reader some of the detail that they may miss if only give the illustrations.

Selznick's illustrations are very detailed and range from pages with minimal objects to very busy. However, the detail within each illustration is vivid and apparent. The reader could almost get the whole story line from the illustrations themselves. Selznick's ability to create light, dark, and shadow based on the cross hatch drawing technique gives depth to each of his drawings. The author/illustrator also used some of Georges Melies (the old toymaker) original artwork in order to tell his story.

Overall, I feel that this is a beautifully made book that creates visually stimulating illustrations with brief text to create a book genre between picture book and graphic novel.

Review Excerpts
Starred review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "This is a masterful narrative that readers can literally manipulate."
BOOKLIST: "Bookmaking this ambitious demands and deserves attention"
Starred review in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: "Here is a true masterpiece"

Connections
*You can use this book to discuss how illustrations can tell a story.
*Have students create a story using illustrations to tell most of the action.
*Have students look at illustrations in THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET. Then have them write what they think the story is about. Finally, read the story and the text and see how well they were able to interpret Selznick's illustrations.
*Related Books:
Selznick, Brian. THE BOY OF A THOUSAND FACES. ISBN 0060262656
Selznick, Brian. THE HOUDINI BOX. ISBN 1416968784