The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is an extremely interesting and entertaining book on every possible level. The first detail about the book that drew me in, was its status somewhere between novel, graphic novel, and picture book. The illustrations are not only extremely well done, but are necassary to understand the story, for they fill in the gaps that the written story leaves out.
Alongside this very effective hook is a story that mixes fact with fiction. The young protagonish, Hugo Cabret, is an orphan at the start of the story and is as alone as he could be for his drunken uncle who was caring for him, if you could call it that, and was apprenticing him to his trade as the upkeeper of the train station's clocks has disappeared and Hugo is forced to keep up appearances so he won't end up in an orphanage. While he is doing this, he is also attempting to fix an automaton that his father worked down before his death and the burning down of the museum that he worked at. This leads to a journey of self-discovery both for the young Hugo and many of the other characters that surround him. Intertwined with this story is a history of both early film and one of the earliest film makers. Similar to Hugo's story, the history is very intriguing and draws the reader in even deeper, making them want to find out more on their own.
These different facets of the book all combine together to make something both more interesting and more entertaing than the parts seperated. Although the book is a fairly quick read, it is one that, in my opinion, can be revisited many times and which will reveal more of itself to those that are interested in the subject and pursue it.
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