Book #24 - The Invention of Hugo Cabret

"I have to be here for some reason..."

Title: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Author: Brian Selznick

Illustrator: Brian Selznick

Publisher: Scholastic

Date of Publication: 2008

Genre: Fiction

Readability Lexile: 820L

Summary: 

This is the story of a 12 year old orphan named Hugo Cabret who lives and works behind the walls of a train station in Paris, France. Since his uncle died, he had to begin taking care of the station's clocks to make sure they are always on time so he is not discovered. Hugo's father died in a fire not to long ago but left him a manual to a mechanical man he was working on before he passed away. Hugo's quest to fix this mechanical man leads him to steal parts from an old many who sells toys in the train station. When Hugo is caught by this old man he has no idea that the old man's past and Hugo's future are so intertwined. Hugo knows that the mechanical man will write a secret message once it is fixed... will the message be a note from his father or will it be something else that changes Hugo's life forever? Hugo meets many other interesting people along he way like Isabel, the toy-maker's niece who helps Hugo once he realizes that he can trust her. This story is told almost entirely in illustrations.

Evaluation: 

This an excellent story! The book itself is so unique compared to others. The story is told in mostly pictures with some pages of text to support them. Hugo, is a multi-dimensional character that goes through up and downs throughout the book and in the end learns that he always did have a place in the world - it just took a little longer than he expected to figure out what it was. The characters fit with the plot, setting, and language used. The setting that the author chose is authentic to the time period and place that the story takes place in. It would be more difficult to imagine this story even taking place in New York City rather than Paris. There is something more mysterious about Paris that adds a lot to the story. This story is relevant to many children because it is all about finding your place in the world. 

Literary Elements:

1. Theme: One of the themes of this story is that everyone has a place in the world. Another theme is that somethings and some people are not as they seem. Hugo learns both of these lessons in this story.
2. Setting: The setting is super important to this book. It just wouldn't be the same if Hugo lived in an orphanage instead of a train stage behind the clocks. The setting helps to develop the story and put us in the same shoes as the main character, Hugo.
3. Tone: The author uses tone to set the stage for the plot, setting, and characters in this story.The tone is kind of dark at some parts but then very lighthearted at other parts. Overall, I would say that this is a mysterious story.

Illustrations:

The illustrations don't just support the story, they tell it! This book is filled with 284 pages of original drawings by Brian Selznick. These pencil drawings walk the reader through different parts of the story with lots of detail. When I first started reading this book I wasn't sure how I would like having to create the story on my own using the pictures as a guide but in the end I loved it! I was really fun and much more engaging than regular text.

Mini-Lesson Idea: 
I would use this book to teach wordless (or nearly wordless) books. Students could develop their own kind of book that is told with pictures. They would need to figure out how to tell their story, make it make sense to others, and show the same amount of details that text can create.