THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick

This blog was created for a class at TWU.

Bibliography

Selznick, Brian. 2007. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. New York: Scholastic Press.

ISBN 978-0-439-81378-5


Summary

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a story about a boy named Hugo who ends up having to take care of himself. Hugo's dad passes away and he is sent to live with his uncle. His uncle lives in a train station and takes care of the clocks at the station. When Hugo's uncle doesn't come back one night Hugo begins to secretly take care of the clocks so that he will have a place to live. When Hugo's father was still alive he found a robot of sorts that was broken and in need of repair. After his father passed Hugo took the robot and worked on fixing it himself. Little did he know that the robot would end up helping him find a "family." Through meeting a young girl and an old man at the train station the story of the robot begins to come to life and eventually lead to Hugo finding a place to be.

Analysis

This was a great book! The story is told not only in words but also in pictures. The parts of the story that are told with pictures only are just as clear as when the author uses words. The illustrations are done in black and white sketches but are fascinating to look at. The details in each picture are amazing. One of my favorite parts was when the security officer was chasing Hugo through the train station. The chase took place over several pages. Even though there were no words you can't help but turn the page to find out what happens next. The pictures are so gripping though that you don't want to turn them too fast because you don't want to miss anything. It was a great mix between words and pictures that helped tell the complete story.

Review Excerpts

Kirkus Reviews: "Selznick's words and art are interwoven to tell a captivating story based on historical elements."

Kirkus Reviews: "The text is a relatively small portion of the book: the rest is beautifully detailed charcoal drawings that create the feel of an old silent film."

Horn Book Review: "There is a bounty of mystery and incident here, along with several excellent chase scenes expertly rendered in the atmospheric,dramatically crosshatched black-and-white (naturally)pencil drawings that make up at least a third of the book."

Connections
I think a great connection to this book in the classroom is to have the students create their own story using pictures. I feel that kids get so caught up and bombarded by technology today that they can loose some of their creativity. As teachers it is our job to make sure they still use their own creativity and don't just rely on technology to help create things. After reading this story I think students will be intrigued and want to create their own story using pictures.
Students can have the option to use both words and pictures or just pictures to tell their story. For starters it can just be a simple story. I want to leave the project pretty open to see what they can come up with.