Author: Brian Selznick
Publication Date: 2007
What's it all about? This book -at first glance- appears to be a children's book and in fact the children's section is where you would find it in most libraries and bookstores. However it is a book that will appeal to adults as well. It is a combination of pictures, still shots from film and text that each take an equal part in telling the story of Hugo Cabret.
Hugo Cabret is a young boy who secretly lives at the Paris train station, he invents things, he fixes things, he steals things. Hugo has a secret nobody can know. This is his life until one day he is caught by the owner of the train station toy shop. There is an interesting cast of characters from Isabelle, a strange girl with an insatiable appetite for books, to Etienne the young man with a eye patch who sneaks children into the local cinema, to the mysterious and grumpy old man Papa Georges who owns the train station toy shop.
This story is so beautiful and whimsical, I read it in one night with each word or picture spurring me on, wanting me to find out more. It is a lovely story that not only captures your imagination but gives you some interesting information about the history of French cinema. The format was very sucessful in keeping a natural flow, once I got into the book I hardly noticed the changes from picture to text.
I would recommend this book to children, adults, aliens and animals, it is fantastic!
Publisher: Scholastic Press
4 comments:
This sounds like just the sort of book I'd love to read. Thanks Natasha.
I just finished reading this fantastic book! Wow, I was reading it at 3 am this morning and just had a few pages to go at lunchtime. Wonderfual illustrations, photos and history all tied up in a very intriguing and charming story.
this book is awesome! i couldn't stop reading and finished in a night!
If you enjoyed this, you will also love The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart:
http://thebookcrowd.blogspot.com/2010/04/boy-with-cuckoo-clock-heart.html
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