The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a magical story told through pictures as well as words. And I don’t just mean that there are pictures added in with the story, I mean the pictures mixed in actually tell parts of the story. Say Hugo is following somebody home and there are pictures of that happening, when the words pick up again they start where the picture left off, possibly at said person’s house.

Yes, I have seen the movie and honestly, I’d rather not compare the two. The movie is fantastic all by itself and the same goes for the book. You get a little more of what Hugo is thinking and feeling with the book which I appreciated. It was interesting to hear his thoughts and hopes and dreams.

I love that the story is part adventure, part mystery, part heart-warming, and part boy-learning-to-grow-up-without-a-family. It’s amazing how Selznick weaved all those elements into one beautiful story. Well, two actually, but you’ll have to read the book to know what I mean.

The Nutshell: Despite The Invention of Hugo Cabret’s enormous size, I finished it within a couple hours, so don’t let that scare you. The drawings are beautiful and the story is just as lovely. I don’t think one outshines the other, they both work together seamlessly to tell a magical story of a boy who gets to experience love, hope, and adventure.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a story of a twelve year old boy who lives in a train station in Paris. He lives by himself as his uncle mysteriously vanished, and keeps the stations clocks running. The only thing he has to keep him company is a mechanical man who Hugo rescued from the ashes of a museum, the same one that his father died in. But then he meets Isabelle, the goddaughter of the old man in the toy shop. They are launched into a mystery that revolves around the mechanical man and its hidden meaning.

I loved the idea of this book being in words and pictures, some pages with only writing and the others only of pictures. This made it quite a quick but interesting read. It was quite a light read as well but the story went quite deep. I thought the characters were amazing and you could see the way the author imagined them through the pictures. I recommend it to children who like a good mystery that comes with pictures.

Reader reviewed by lala

this book is a very impressive book it is about a by and how he could only fix items but sadly his father had died in a fire trying to fix the robot that had P.6 drawn a rocket ship in the moons eye.

Reader reviewed by K. DeVaney

  The story, told in flashback, begins in Paris in 1931. Hugo Cabret is a young orphan living in a small apartment with his uncle above a train station. Hugo's father, a clock maker, had found a broken automaton, a windup figure, in a museum attic and had taken it home to try to fix. He was killed in a fire before he accomplished this task.
  Now Hugo has taken over the goal of getting this mechanical man to work once more.  In his quest to find the right parts, he makes friends and  also enemies, but his perseverance pays off in the end.
  The text is interspersed with detailed pencil drawings that help the story really come to life.

Reader reviewed by johnston

The Invention of Hugo Cabaret by Brian Selznick is an outstanding book that I just couldnt put down. The story takes place in a train station in France where there is a boy named Hugo his parents died when he was young so he went to live with his uncle in the train station. When his uncle goes missing he has to keep the clocks running and steal food to keep from staving.
Hugo gets caught stealing toys by the owner of toy store and he takes his notebook. The only way to get his notebook back is to work for him. I cant tell you the rest because it might give away the ending so u will have to read to find out more.
I really liked this book. It was easy to read and it didnt take long to finish. This book is intended for middle school readers but it is good for anyone. For example my cousin read it and loved it and he is a junior in high school. This book also won the Caldecott Medal.
The only weakness in this book is some people skip the pictures and the pictures tell the story as well as the words, so you have to look at the pictures! It is also the thickness of a hairy potter book but it only has a fourth of the reading. This is a great nonfiction book to read. Brian Selznick has not written any other well-known books though. Over all this is an unbelievably good book to read and I strongly recommend it.

Reader reviewed by Dustin

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a page turning novel. That takes place in Paris. It is about a boy who lives with his father in the begging. But when his father found a metal man in the attic of the train station his dad is then lock in that attic and later the building is set on fire. His dad is later found dead. Hugo tried and tried to put the metal man back together but he just didnt have the right parts so he starts working at a toy booth for free and every day he would steal another part for the metal man. Then like clockwork the metal man started drawing a picture at the end of the picture the metal man sighed a name that name led to untold secrets.
There are a lot of good things about this book, but one it is mostly pictures. I think one reason why some people dont read this book is because it is so big people think I dont want to read a 500 page book but I think there is only like 150 pages of reading the rest is pictures.
This book is one of the very best books that I have ever read if I get a chance I will read it again. This is probably for 5th grade up to everyone. I would recommend this book to any one wanting to read a good book. Good job writing this book Brian Sleznick.

Reader reviewed by Jacqueline

This book is way different from any other book I have read. It is about a boy whose uncle dies, but he keeps doing his uncle's job of taking care of the clocks. No one knows that he is living by himself. He steals sometimes to eat because he doesn't know how to cash his uncle's paychecks. He is trying to fix this robot that draws pictures because he thinks it will tell him something about his father. He ends up finding something much bigger.

This book has a lot of pictures. Most of the pages are pictures. I love how this book tells a story sometimes with words and sometimes with pictures. I've never read a book like this before. Don't be scared off by the size, this book really doesn't take that long to read.

Reader reviewed by Carmen

Hugo is a young boy growing up in Paris. He lives on his own in a train station repairing and maintaining the clocks. He learned all about clockwork from watching his father, who died in a mysterious fire at a museum while working on an amazing machine called an Automaton (learn more about them here: http://www.fi.edu/learn/automaton/index.html). Hugo is determined to repair the Automaton but runs into some problems along the way.

I can't say it's the best written story ever, but perhaps it's just for younger readers. The beautiful illustrations more than make up for it though, keeping you turning the pages while loosing track of the time. Though it is a very thick book, that's mostly due to all of the illustrations. I read the whole thing in two sittings.

And just incase you're interested, the book, I felt, had a very Steampunk way about it. Learn more about Steampunk here:http: //www.brassgoggles.co.uk/brassgoggles/?page_id=18

Enjoy and happy reading!

Reader reviewed by Amanda

Unfortunately, I wasn't all that impressed with Hugo Cabret. The drawings were absolutely amazing, the writing was good, but the story was just a story to me. It wasn't anything heart-stopping or all that memorable. I felt cheated out of something special when I was finished.


The plot begins with us meeting Hugo, a young orphan who was an apprentice to his alcoholic uncle, the timekeeper for a train station, who mysteriously disappears and leaves Hugo to tend the clocks himself or risk being caught and sent to an orphanage. Hugo manages on his own, constantly following his dream of fixing a quirky machine made of different mechanical parts that when fixed will write a message that Hugo believes is from his father. The reader learns more parts to the mystery of the machine, the note, and parts of history as the story moves on, while witnessing Hugo form bonds with the most unexpected of people.


I did have a favorite selection from the book to share:
"Did you ever notice that all machines are made for some reason?" he asked Isabelle. "They are built to make you laugh, like the mouse here, or to tell the time, like clocks, or to fill you with wonder, like the automaton. Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do. "
Isabelle picked up the mouse, wound it again, and set it down.
"Maybe it's the same with people," Hugo continued. "If you lose your purpose...it's like you're broken."

This little portion of the story did cause me to stop and think about just how Hugo was feeling and how I feel that way quite often. If someone's purpose is taken away, they are broken and lost. Again, a good book, but nothing I would put on a Top 10 list or even rate as "excellent," even with a great quote like that. It certainly is worth a read though, if for nothing more than the beautiful drawings intermingled within the text, helping to tell Hugo's story.

Reader reviewed by g-money

When I picked up this book up at my local libray. i thought to myself that maybe this book would be somewhat intersting. When I started reading it I could not put it down! I thought that I would never stop reading it! Even thought it is a 550 page book, the entire book is litired with esqusite drawings illustrating the story.

When I finished the book I felt bad, about not saving it because I did not want the adventure to be over! Please read this book, you are missing out if you don't!