“The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick – A Meeting of the Bizarre

Hugo is nothing but a small orphan living in a Paris train station, trying to retain his secrets, anonymity, and of course, his life. Though each day is marked by constant struggle, Hugo has an objective in mind: to bring back to working order a small automaton left to him by his death father. 

However, the machine is of incredible complexity, not to mention that it requires special parts to function. Hugo tries to overcome that challenge by stealing toys from a local store, but one day the owner, a mean old man, catches him red-handed, which ends up being the catalyst that sends them both on an adventure that gets increasingly curious and makes their paths cross with those of many other interesting people.

In the end, the book unravels into a grandiose mystery, at the centre of which is a small and never-before-seen robot, a hidden message, a small and overly-talented girl for her age. As you can tell, The Invention of Hugo of Cabret by Brian Selznick is more of a children’s book than anything else, but it certainly isn't meant for children only. 

Adults can find meaning in it as well if they look for it, a bit like with The Little Prince if you will. One aspect which truly adds in that regard are the countless illustrations used throughout the book to bring the story to life.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (book cover)

Contrary to what is the case with most other children’s books, the pictures aren't merely used to supplement the story, but rather to advance and straight up tell it. This reliance on the visual medium truly gives us something new and interesting to experience, even in a book with a story aimed primarily at children.

Though one would expect Selznick to create a jumbled mess from juggling all the different characters, events and storylines, but as it turns out, he is a master at controlling such things and makes each plot unravel at a steady pace. As the story advances, the plotlines slowly come to meet together, answering old questions and bringing to light new ones, until the very end where all is revealed.

In the end, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is hard to classify: it is more than a novel, a children’s story, and an illustration book. It is rather a combination of all three of them, and those who enjoy grandiose and fantastic adventure novels will definitely find something to like here.

Brian Selznick (Author)

Brian Selznick


Brian Selznick is an American author known for incorporating meaningful illustrations into his works, which mostly consist of children’s books. In 2008 he was awarded the 2008 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

“The Locked Door” by Freida McFadden – Roots of a Lost Innocence

Image
  Freida McFadden has been quietly writing some exciting and original thrillers in her spare time from being a practicing physician, and The Locked Door is one of her latest offering in the genre.  It tells the story of Nora, a surgeon and daughter of a serial killer now in jail, who sees her life assaulted from the dark as someone begins to recreate her father's work with the exact same signature.
Read more

“The Lost Colony” by A.G. Riddle – A New Home Among the Stars

Image
A.G. Riddle's Long Winter Trilogy Series is one many of us will remember for the amazing story it brings of humanity's last stand against an overwhelming enemy in times of hopelessness. In The Lost Colony , the third book in the series, we follow James and Emma on their own respective struggles as humanity tries to settle itself on a new planet with an unseen danger none could have foreseen.
Read more

“The Girl on the Stairs” by Barry Ernest – The Small Thorn you Can’t Ignore

Image
Girl on the Stairs , by Barry Ernest and with a foreword written by David Lifton, is an exploration of one specific aspect of the JFK assassination. More precisely, it looks into what a little girl by the name of Victoria Adams saw on that day while standing in the staircase of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald was supposedly making his escape.  Actually, it is more about what she didn’t see than what she did see. Victoria was on the staircase Oswald supposedly used, at the exact same time he supposedly used it. If he were to be there, even the little girl she was, Victoria would have noticed a nervous man quickly running down the stairs. However, she says that on that day, she was alone there, with nobody to be found, especially Oswald.
Read more

“Winter World” by A.G. Riddle – Ice Age from the Void

Image
A.G. Riddle is a true literary explorer seeking to push humanity to its limits and beyond, setting them on a desperate collision course with something beyond its understanding in Winter World . With a sudden ice age dawning on humanity entire swathes of land become uninhabitable and people begin dropping like flies, with anarchy reigning supreme. Looking to the stars for a miraculous solution, the remnants of humanity find a massive mysterious object floating near Mars ...whatever it is, our civilization's hopes of survival rest entirely in its hands.
Read more

“Three Comrades” by Erich Maria Remarque – The Other Side of the Barricade

Image
The two World Wars have been documented, discussed and depicted from virtually every perspective imaginable, ranging from small children caught in a crossfire all the way the leaders of each country. However, it seems that here is a startlingly small amount of attention dedicated to the small hiatus period between the two wars, a time during which many changes came to pass in Germany in a very short amount of time.
Read more