The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I read this book a few years back and recently delivered into the hands of someone who would adore it. For months it had been sitting on my shelf when it started saying it wanted to move house and would I be so kind to address and envelope and send it on its way.


However, it may have moved on, but I still think fondly of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Brian Selznick is a master image making story-teller. He uses his pencil and the divine cross hatching to make the heart and mind leap forward and into the story. He doesn't do away with words however, he uses both with economy and flair that leave one thinking there hasn't been a book quite like it.

ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message all come together...in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures.The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Each picture (there are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!) takes up an entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages to see the next moment unfold in front of you.

from The Invention of Hugo Cabret website

Martin Scorsese is directing the film version which is intriguing. The book deals with pioneer film maker George Melies, so I thought Jean-Pierre Jeunet was probably more the type of director needed. I hope Scorsese doesn't loose the wonderful imagery that Selznick has created. The film is supposedly in 3-D. Perhaps he will leave the images to become animation and the words to become the live action of the film. Whatever he does, I hope it only adds to the readership of Hugo Cabret.