The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Selznick, B. (2007). The invention of Hugo Cabret. Scholastic Press. 533 pages. ISBN 9780439813785

Primary genre: historical fiction

Other elements: mystery, loss, friendship, loss

Intended reader age: 8 and up

Synopsis:

On the day that Hugo Cabret’s father brings him to the museum he shows Hugo a lost object he came across, a mechanical man. His father tells him that if they can fix this man he will draw a picture. But when Hugo’s father perishes in a tragic fire, Hugo’s uncle, a drunk who lives in the Paris train station maintaining the clocks, takes him in. His uncle trains him to become his apprentice and when Hugo’s uncle goes missing, Hugo continues keeping the clocks. Hugo is determined to fix the mechanical man because he is sure this machine will have a message from his father. But, when the toy maker Hugo has been stealing parts from catches him Hugo’s secrets are put at risk. As Hugo begins to work off his debt to the toy maker he learns that this man has secrets of his own and that Hugo’s mechanical man is the key to those solving those secrets.

Review:

I was able to snatch up the advanced reader copy when I was working at Borders; I had read about the formatting and was super excited to read the story. Unfortunately, the AR did not have the final illustrations! So, I had to wait for the official release to finish reading the story.

I loved how Selznick used the illustrations to tell parts of the story. Instead of illustrating scenes described in the story the pictures play just as important role as the text does. Then there was the way that he worked with the illustrations. Creating the feeling of panning in and out to focus your eye on different parts of the scene. 

For me, this is the type of story that gets better the more you read it. It’s not that I wasn’t captivated the first time I read it; it’s just that you don’t realize how many little hints there were through the story leading up to that big final review.

One of my favorite stories about this is book is something a former co-worker told me. She sends books to her grandchildren, we used to work at Borders so this was fairly easy then, and after she read this one she sent it to one of her grandchildren. When said grandchild received the book they promptly asked their mother if my co-worker remembered how old they were. They felt that the number of pages was above and beyond their abilities. This was an issue I remember encountering when recommending this book to customers. After explaining, and showing, that well over half of the pages were actually illustrations more people were willing to tackle the book.

Selznick has written another story that follows the same formatting, Wonderstruck, which I absolutely recommended if readers enjoy The Invention of Hugo Cabret I also really liked the movie adaptation. It is not too often that they are able to transition children’s books to movies in such a great manner so I always appreciate it when they are able to.