Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

by Brian Selznick

Grade: 3 stars
Story: Hugo is a orphaned thief living in a train station, who fixes the clocks there, and steals parts to fix the clockwork man which he got from his father.

Thoughts: This is the second book I've read in three days which is notable for its gorgeous illustrations. But unlike The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, this one is more than half illustrations. It is a unique format, different than a graphic novel or a normal children's illustrated book. And for this book, it worked very well indeed. It gave it a very visual and mysterious atmosphere, which fit in very well with the themes of early silent film and secretive automatons.

The fairly new movie called Hugo is based on this book. I haven't seen it yet, but what I've heard of it seems good. It think if done well, this could make a very good movie indeed, seeing as the visual aspect is so strong.

2 comments:

Petra said...

I haven't read the book or seen the movie yet, unfortunately, but I'm interested in the concept of telling the story mostly through pictures. I read that the movie was really inspired by the illustrations and some of the scenes look just like them. It's nice to hear of what seems like a faithful book-to-movie adaptation.

Aquinas' Goose said...

The movie is fabulous. I saw it twice in theaters. I would highly recommend it and am looking forward to reading the book.