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The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Page history last edited by wikiuser0006 11 mos ago

Here is a link to a book review on the book 'the invention of hugo cabret' by  Brian Selznick

http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Hugo-Cabret-Brian-Selznick/dp/0439813786/ref=bxgy_cc_b_text_a/103-7692233-0351842

 

Hugo Cabret is a gaphic novel.

 

 

 

THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET is art of a high order. To start with, this book is a beautiful object. The right dust jacket can definitely sell a book. The graphite rendering of Hugo in extreme close-up gracing the book's spine and wrapping around the back cover is what drew me to the bookshelf in the first place. And upon discovering the book's unusual format, I was hooked. The artwork here does not illustrate the text. Rather it advances the plot. It's a little like watching a silent movie and reading title cards...completely appropriate in a story dealing with the origins of cinema.

 

The story lives up to the promise of the packaging. It is immediately engaging and ultimately touching. Hugo is the orphaned son of a clock-maker, living in the walls behind a Parisian train station, maintaining the station's clocks, stealing bread and milk to survive, stealing nuts, bolts, and gears to complete a project his father was working on when he died. His secret existence is threatened as his life becomes entwined with a bitter, old man and a bookish young girl. It's part graphic novel, part mystery, part coming-of-age. There are echoes of Pinocchio but with a twist as here it is a lonely boy building an automaton father figure.

 

This is a timeless book about, among other things, time. This is a book for the ages, and a book for all ages. The story, the artwork, the writing style, the overall design, all first rate parts of a greater whole, like the precisely crafted mechanism of a fine Swiss clock.

 

 

 

These are Brian Selznick's site and his publisher, SCHOOLASTIC's site.

http://www2.scholastic.com

http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com

 

 

Comments (1)

Anonymous said

at 2:23 pm on Dec 16, 2008

cool

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