The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I don't have a lot of intellectual energy today. I am tired--sleeping and staying asleep has become more difficult the last few weeks and the countdown is on. T and I haven't left the house today and have been lazily doing not much of anything. But, I did want to write a few notes on what I read last week.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret won the Caldecott Medal this year, so I was surprised to see a 500+ page book when I picked it up from the library last week. It is a book unlike any I have seen. Brian Selznick tells his story through both the use of his text as well as his charcoal-like illustrations. He describes it as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things. " The illustrations perfectly complement the story--as it unwinds, we learn more about a mysterious old man who sells toys, but who had a previous career as a film maker, and these illustrations are like an old time silent movie.

The story focuses on a boy who lives in a Paris train station and keeps the clocks up and running. He has a talent for all things mechanical, and in the process of the novel, is able to figure out how to fix a complicated automaton that his father was interested in before he died.

That's about all I have in me to say, but here are a couple of links for fun reading associated with this book. One is a review, and one is a post from a friend who is a children's librarian.