Title: The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick; Scholastic Press, New York, 2007

Genre: Young adult fiction, mystery, illustrated, Ages 11 to adult

Characters: Hugo Cabret, Papa Georges, Isabelle

Plot: Hugo Cabret has never had the life many dream of, but he was content until as a young boy his father died and he was forced to live with his alcoholic uncle. His uncle taught him to steal and to keep the clocks in the train station where they lived running, while he would disappear for days at a time to drink and steal. Hugo misses his father, who died in a fire working on an automaton that Hugo had come to cherish. When he accidentally stumbles on the automaton, in worse shape than before when his father had been trying to restore it, he knows that he must take it with him and make it work again. When Hugo’s uncle does not come home for several weeks, he becomes worried that the guard will find out he is alone and send him away, so he keeps the clocks in the station running as his uncle did so that no one will suspect he is gone. He manages to get his uncle’s paychecks each week without anyone noticing, but does not know how to cash them and they remain in a pile on the kitchen table. Hugo spends day and night with the automaton and the one thing his father left him, a notebook filled with drawings of how the automaton works and what the parts look like. One day, things go horribly wrong when Hugo is caught stealing from an old man by the name of Papa Georges, a toy maker. The man takes Hugo’s notebook and will not give it back to him. When Hugo returns several days in a row, demanding his notebook, the man tells him that he can work in the shop to pay off what he had stolen and damaged, and then he may or may not get his notebook back, as the man would not tell him truthfully whether or not it had been destroyed. Hugo takes him up on the offer, never fully understanding why the parts he continues to steal from the old man fit the automaton so well. As Hugo gets to know the old man’s granddaughter, Isabelle, a story of true irony begins to unfold and the three learn how they will forever be in debt to the other.

Touchy Areas: None, the book is full of warmth and convincing characters with no bothersome areas or topics to be concerned about.

Related Titles: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Movies: Stand by Me; The Lion King
 

Music: "One" by Three Dog Night

Evaluation: I really enjoyed this book on many different levels. I loved both the story and the pictures, and I loved the way the story was told. The pictures do not go along with the text, but instead replace it. There is text, then the pictures will take over for awhile and you follow the story through them, and then the text picks up where the pictures left off. It is a new and exciting way to read a book, and it made the book move very fast; I read it in less than two hours in one sitting. I think that young students, as early as grade six, up to adults, would enjoy this book. It has relatable characters that make you want to meet them and the illustrations add so much to the story. The only thing that would have made the book better were more surprising plot twists that the reader would not be ready for. There were only a few very big ones, but the story could have had more of a fast-paced action about it for students who are not natural readers. I would give this book a 9 out of 10.

Reviewed by: Kelly Altepeter, University of Toledo