The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Scholastic, $29.99
This is the book on which Martin Scorsese’s recent movie Hugo is based — and what a unique and beautiful book it is.
This account of a young orphan boy adrift in Paris in the 1930s unfolds both in words and pictures; you can think of it as a graphic novel with some text but really, it’s more like watching a silent film on paper.
Selznick has a perfect sense of when to write and when to let the glorious black and white illustrations carry the tale.
Hugo is a desperate boy, a thief, who lives hidden behind the clocks in a big train station. His father has died in a fire but there may or may not be a message from him concealed in a strange mechanical man which his father left behind, and Hugo is now trying to re-build.
But only if he can stay out the clutches of all those who would lock him up, especially the wicked station master. A dreamy treat for all ages.
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