The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Selznik, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Scholastic Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-439-81378-5

Plot

The story opens with A Brief Introduction from Professor H. Alcofrisbas. He sets the time, 1931, and the place, Paris. He introduces the protagonist, twelve-year-old Hugo Cabret. Then he asks the reader to imagine that they are watching the opening of a movie as they page through the book's opening series of illustrations. The first 45 pages of the book are beautiful black and white illustrations of the moon, Paris, a train station, and finally Hugo and the old man in the toy booth. Hugo is an orphaned boy. He lives with his uncle who maintains the clocks in the train station. His uncle disappears, so Hugo continues to care for the clocks, secretly lives in his uncle's apartment in the train station, and survives by stealing food. He also steals mechanical toys from the toy booth at the train station. He needs the toys' parts to repair an automaton, a mechanical man. His father tried to repair it before he died. The mechanical man sits at a desk and holds a pen. Hugo hopes that if he can repair it, the automaton will write a message from his father. But soon he is caught stealing. The old man in the toy booth takes the notebook Hugo uses in his attempts to repair the automaton. He tells Hugo that he will burn it and that Hugo must now work for him to pay for the things he stole. The man's granddaughter, Isabelle, eventually befriends Hugo and tells him that her Pap Georges has the notebook at home. Hugo and Isabelle sneak into a movie theater together and enjoy an afternoon of escape. When they return to the train station, Hugo sees the station inspector making notes on a clip board as he looks up at the main clock. Hugo panics, thinking that he has been found out. He tells Isabelle he must go, and she demands to know where he lives. Then she panics and runs away. Hugo chases her, and in the chase he realizes that she wears the key to the automaton on a string around her neck. He steals it from her so that he can use it to wind up the automaton and receive its message. Isabelle follows him to his apartment. He winds up the automaton, and they watch as the automaton dips a pen into an inkwell. Hugo is disappointed that there is no written message from his father. Instead, the automaton draws a picture from his father's favorite movie. The picture shows the face of the moon with a rocket lodged in one eye. Hugo and Isabelle go on to find the connection between Hugo's father, the automaton, and Isabelle's key.

Critical Evaluation

Brian Selznick's detailed drawings are wondrous. They show action and develop characters at the same time. The story is told through these pictures as much as through the author's spare writing. He combines the stories of the fictional Hugo and Isabelle with the work of the real-life French film maker Georges Melies. The book is over five hundred pages long, but there are so many illustrations that it is not hard to read the entire book. This can be particularly encouraging for reluctant readers who may be amazed that they can read such a big, thick novel. An interview with Selznick in which he describes this book can be found at http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/selznick.

Annotations

Hugo lives alone in a Paris train station, caring for the clocks, and stealing to survive. When he is caught, he makes a new friend and solves the mystery held within the automaton his father tried to repair before he died.

Author

Brian Selznick's work as an illustrator has won several awards. The Invention of Hugo Cabret won the Caldecott Medal in 2008. Other work includes illustrations for The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins and Walt Whitman: Words for America both by Barbara Kerley.

Genre

Fiction – historical fiction, mystery

Curriculum Ties

Language arts

Visual arts – drawing and film

Booktalk Ideas

If presenting the book to a small group, read the introduction and then slowly page through the opening series of illustrations so that the group can see them. It would be fun to dim the lights like in a movie theater.

Reading Level/Interest Age

Grade 4 (age 9) and up.

Challenge Issues and Defense

None.

Why is it here?

This book has an attention-getting illustration on its spine. It shows half of Hugo's face and just one of his eyes. It almost jumped out at me as I walked by the shelf of Caldecott Medal winners at my city library.