Common Sense Media Review
Spectacular cinematic book has lots of heart.
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Why Age 8+?
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Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 15 parent reviews
Based on 39 kid reviews
Kids say this book features stunning artwork that beautifully complements an engaging and heartfelt story, making it an excellent choice for both reluctant and avid young readers. While some find it a bit slow or complex for younger audiences, many agree that its blend of illustrations and text captivates readers and delivers important themes of friendship, survival, and resilience.
- amazing art
- captivating story
- complex themes
- good for all ages
- suitable for tweens
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
What's the Story?
When Hugo's father, a clockmaker, is killed in a fire, Hugo is taken in by his uncle. They live together in a hidden room inside the walls of the Paris train station, where it's the uncle's job to maintain the station clocks -- until one night he disappears. Now Hugo is alone, still living inside the station walls, stealing to survive, and maintaining the clocks so no one will know his uncle is gone.
Hugo also works on an automaton, a mechanical man, that his father was trying to restore. He steals parts from a toy shop in the station. When he's caught, the mean store owner takes away his father's notebook and threatens him with arrest. But the old man's hidden past and Hugo's are intertwined, and the secret message hidden in the automaton's workings is only the beginning.
Is It Any Good?
THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET is like nothing you've seen before. When you or your child first pick it up, it looks like one of those fat fantasies that are so popular these days. When you open it, it seems similar to a graphic novel. But lengthy sections of wordless illustrations (284 pages of drawings) are interspersed with pages of more traditional prose. But neither text nor pictures can stand without the other.
Brian Selznick's brilliant hybrid is put in service of a complex and heartfelt story that involves a plucky orphan, the history of early cinema, the mechanics of clocks and other intricate machinery, and a little bit of magic. The whole is a work of great beauty and excitement, with breathless pacing ramped up even further by the wordless sections. Selznick has created an entirely new art form that succeeds as art, literature, and entertainment.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about wordless stories. How does a story told in pictures differ from a conventional book? Is it as easy to follow? Is it more fun in some ways?
How can an automaton be made to write poems and draw pictures? How does an automaton work?
What did you learn from this book about how the earliest movies were made?
Kids may want to see the films referred to in this story. Consider seeking them out for further viewing.
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Brian Selznick
- Genre : Historical Fiction
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
- Publication date : March 28, 2007
- Number of pages : 533
- Award : Caldecott Medal and Honors
- Last updated : June 19, 2019
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