The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Ratings156
Average rating4.2
Brian Selznick writes amazing historical fiction that also feels like magic. This book is a really fun experience. The illustrations are beautiful and are able to tell a story with no dialog that make it feel cinematic. Reading this book you will learn about an early film maker named Georges Méliès who made a film called A Trip to the Moon in 1902! At the end of the book there is a references page so you can continue to learn about the person and events that inspired the book! ~Ashley
If you like illustrated historical fiction I would recommend Matt Phelan to read next!
Such a fun book! I loved that the illustrations added to the story. The pace of the book moved rather quickly. Hugo is a great character to follow– stuck in a life of sadness and nightmares, he found a way to dream. The Invention of Hugo Cabret was a story full of hope and about young people growing up.
Most of all, it was a wonderful tribute to the film industry.
Pros: told through images and text, some tense moments, fun characters, fast read
Cons: most of the conflict is due to Hugo keeping secrets
Hugo Cabret lives in the Timekeeper's room inside a Parisian train station. When an elderly toy maker catches him stealing a toy mouse, the man takes a notebook Hugo received from his deceased father. The notebook contains images of an automaton Hugo's trying to fix, images that cause a startling reaction from the old man.
The book follows Hugo as he tries to get the notebook back and interacts with the man and his goddaughter, Isabelle. There are old movies, magic, clocks, thefts, and lies. The best part of the book is that the movies and automata discussed are all real.
This is a fun - and fast - read. Some sections are told through full page illustrations rather than text, giving the book the feeling of a movie. The immediacy of the action and Hugo's point of view narrative enhance that feeling.
There are some tense moments, especially towards the end of the book.
While I can understand Hugo's fear of being taken from his current home and his fear of what would happen to him, it has to be said that most of the problems he encounters throughout the book are due to his inability to trust others, even after they've been proved trustworthy and his compulsive need to keep secrets. Things would have resolved much faster had he told Georges why the notebook was so important to him.
Though it's a thick book (due to the images) it really is an easy read, perfect for readers of all ages.
An excellent children's book that focuses on the importance of history, film, possibilities, self preservation and more. It captures the imagination and succeeds where so many children's stories fail.
Pero qué libro más hermoso!! Me encanta la forma de narrar de Brian Selznick. Sus dibujos son espectaculares y me gustó la forma en que combinó el texto con las imágenes. Definitivamente tengo que leer más libros de él.
This wonderful love letter to the imagination and creativity behind movies is great mix of words and images that is really quite charming. I fell in love with the movie, but had not read the book up until now. The movie is certainly a wonderful adaptation, but it was nice to see Selznick's drawings and the words and thoughts of Hugo throughout the story. Check out if you're like me and enjoy visuals and stories in a neat package, with a wonderful story to boot.
A good story. It would be three stars, but the illustrations are worth one star all their own, especially the ones of the bookstore. I was surprised at how close the movie kept to the book, with the exception of the Station Inspector's character. The one thing that bothers me is that the reason for Papa Georges's anguished bitterness about his lost career isn't really clear. I think the movie kind of hinted at the Great War as being part of the reason, which makes sense, but in the book it seemed to be more about increased competition in movie-making that resulted in him being “forced” to sell his films so they could be made into something so banal and ignoble as shoe-heels. A little heavy-handed and pretty silly when you think about World War 2 on its way in a few years when selling some films to keep soldiers in boots would be well worth the sacrifice. Well, that's a bit sanctimonious and blowhardy of me, I guess; the story takes place in the early thirties, so whatever, Laura. Maybe the idea is just that it is torture for a great artist not to be able to fulfill their purpose, and for all I know that is entirely plausible; not being a great artist I wouldn't know.
Very cute and fun. It was a lovely reading experience as the illustrations were beautiful.
The illustrations were great. I didn't read all of the text because it's written at a very kid-friendly level and didn't interest me much. This is one example where the movie works better than the book, mainly because I think it's very important to actually see Méliès films in motion.
This book is simply a piece of art, it looks quit daunting when you first see it, but most of the book consists of amazing pencil drawings. The story itself was just OK I thought, but definitely worth the read!
This was a cool book about a young boy, Hugo, who lives in Paris in 1931. He's been orphaned and is living hidden within the Paris train station. The story involves a toy shop owner, a young girl, many clocks and an automaton. The story is told alternately in words and pictures and as such reads very fast. The book itself is big, fat doorstopper but I actually read it in only two days. It was fun, I may read it someday to my kiddos.
It struck me as gimmicky when I first picked it up. Pages and pages of pictures without text and then suddenly text and more text. I picked it up and put it back down. Then I read a review (maybe Nancy Pearl's) and the reviewer raved about it. I decided to give it another chance. It turned out to be more powerful than a traditional novel for children and more powerful than a picture book. A mystery that is clever and unusual. I think it will go over big in my library.