RARE SIGNED 1/1 Brian Selznick INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET

THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET

Synopsis

ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a fiction book written and illustrated by Brian Selznick and published by Scholastic Press. The hardcover edition was released on January 30 2007, and the paperback edition is scheduled for release on June 2 2008. With 300 pictures between the book's 554 pages, the book depends equally on its pictures as it does the actual words. Selznick himself has described the book as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things." The book won the 2008 Caldecott Medal.

REVIEWS

From Barnes & Noble

Orphan Hugo Cabret lives in a wall. His secret home is etched out in the crevices of a busy Paris train station. Part-time clock keeper, part-time thief, he leads a life of quiet routine until he gets involved with an eccentric, bookish young girl and an angry old man who runs a toy booth in the station. The Invention of Hugo Cabret unfolds its cryptic, magical story in a format that blends elements of picture book, novel, graphic novel, and film. Caldecott Honor-winning author-illustrator Brian Selznick has fashioned an intricate puzzle story that binds the reader like a mesmerist's spell.

The New York Times - John Schwartz

It is wonderful.

Take that overused word literally: Hugo Cabret evokes wonder. At more than 500 pages, its proportions seem Potteresque, yet it makes for quick reading because Selznick’s amazing drawings take up most of the book. While they may lack the virtuosity of Chris Van Allsburg’s work or David Wiesner’s, their slight roughness gives them urgency. The result is a captivating work of fiction that young readers with a taste for complex plots and a touch of magic — think Harry H., not Harry P. — can love.

Publishers Weekly

Selznick's unique, visually arresting illustrated novel is transformed into an equally unique audiobook-plus-DVD presentation here. The story of 12-year-old Hugo Cabret—orphan, clockmaker's apprentice, petty thief and aspiring magician—and how a curious machine connects him with his departed father and pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès is full-bodied material for Woodman. The narrator dives in, reading with both a bright energy and an air of mystery—befitting the adventurous plot. Listeners will likely cotton to Woodman's affable tone and be fascinated by all the unusual elements here, including the sound-effects sequences (footsteps, train station noises) that stand in for Selznick's black-and-white illustrations, which appear like mini–silent movies in the book. Selznick himself takes over as host on the making-of style DVD, in which he divulges his love of film and his inspiration for the book, discusses (and demonstrates) his drawing technique and even performs a magic trick. The "chapters" of his interview are interspersed with excerpts from the audiobook, as he explains how the recording was a translation of both his words and pictures to sound. This inventive audio-visual hybrid will be a welcome addition to both home and classroom libraries. Ages 9-12. (Mar.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Children's Literature

Hugo Cabret is upset when his unusual notebook is confiscated by the owner of the wind-up toy stand at the Paris train station. When the old man says he intends to burn the notebook, Hugo is beside himself. It is, after all, the only connection he has left with his father. It is the key to a critically important mystery. Within its pages lies the reason why Hugo Cabret, recently abandoned by his uncle, continues to hide in the Paris train station, tending the clocks and hoping nobody notices him. He must get it back! So we have the beginning of the end for Hugo's life to this point…and the beginning of something more. Brian Selznick's book is a lush hybrid of a creation, a blend of novel and graphic novel that invites you to linger over each page, but also inspires a hunger to know more that keeps you turning the pages. This unforgettable work is homage to early cinema, to human curiosity, and to magic, that manages to evoke, in even the most the modern, high-tech, wired reader a sense of wonder at the splendid creations of the world in 1931.

VOYA

Orphaned twelve-year-old Hugo Cabret lives in a train station in Paris in 1931, managing to survive by stealing food and keeping his uncle's disappearance a secret. Hugo runs the clocks in the city for his uncle and pilfers small toy parts in the hopes of fixing an automaton that he received from his father. Eventually his plan of surviving on his own fails, and he befriends a young girl and her grandfather, who owns a toyshop in the train station. The grandfather recognizes Hugo's talent for repairing machinery and employs him at the toy store. The girl's grandfather turns out to be the famous filmmaker Georges Melies, who adopts Hugo and fosters his love for magic. Selznick's artwork in this "novel in words and pictures" is stunning. Beautiful, full-page black-and-white illustrations are interspersed throughout the book and advance the story, often in critical areas of the plot. Readers will also love the still film images that are used when the characters discuss Melies's films. The novel is loosely based on the actual French filmmaker, and the credits section at the end gives more information about Melies, films from the early movie era, and automatons. Part mystery, part feel-good drama, and part picture book for older readers, this novel will fly off the shelf simply because of its visual appeal.

Daryl GrabarekCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

Gr 3-6
Brian Selznick's atmospheric story (Scholastic, 2007) is set in Paris in 1931. Hugo Cabret is an orphan; his father, a clockmaker, has recently died in a fire and the boy lives with his alcoholic Uncle Claude, working as his apprentice clock keeper in a bustling train station. When Hugo's uncle fails to return after a three-day absence, the boy decides it's his chance to escape the man's harsh treatment. But Hugo has nowhere to go and, after wandering the city, returns to his uncle's rooms determined to fix a mechanical figure-an automaton-that his father was restoring when he died. Hugo is convinced it will "save his life"-the figure holds a pen, and the boy believes that if he can get it working again, it will deliver a message from his father. This is just the bare outline of this multilayered story, inspired by and with references to early (French) cinema and filmmaker George Méliès, magic and magicians, and mechanical objects. Jeff Woodman's reading of the descriptive passages effectively sets the story's suspenseful tone. The book's many pages of pictorial narrative translate in the audio version into sound sequences that successfully employ the techniques of old radio plays (train whistles, footsteps reverberating through station passages, etc.). The accompanying DVD, hosted by Selznick and packed with information and images from the book, will enrich the listening experience.

Kirkus Reviews

From Selznick's ever-generative mind comes a uniquely inventive story told in text, sequential art and period photographs and film. Orphaned Hugo survives secretly in a Parisian train station (circa 1930). Obsessed with reconstructing a broken automaton, Hugo is convinced that it will write a message from his father that will save his life. Caught stealing small mechanical repair parts from the station's toy shop, Hugo's life intersects with the elderly shop owner and his goddaughter, Isabelle. The children are drawn together in solving the linked mysteries of the automaton and the identity of the artist, illusionist and pioneer filmmaker, Georges Melies, long believed dead. Discovering that Isabelle's godfather is Melies, the two resurrect his films, his reputation and assure Hugo's future. Opening with cinematic immediacy, a series of drawings immerses readers in Hugo's mysterious world. Exquisitely chosen art sequences are sometimes stopped moments, sometimes moments of intense action and emotion. The book, an homage to early filmmakers as dreammakers, is elegantly designed to resemble the flickering experience of silent film melodramas. Fade to black and cue the applause! (notes, film credits) (Fiction. 9-12)

Plot

The story is set in Paris, in 1930, and begins in a Parisian train station. Hugo Cabret is a twelve-year-old boy who lives behind the walls of the station maintaining its clocks. Hugo spies on an old man who works at a toy booth through openings in a clock from the inside of the vents. The old man and a young girl are arguing, and when the old man is distracted Hugo comes out and attempts to steal from the old man's stand. However, he is caught by the old man. The toy stand owner calls for the Station Inspector, whom Hugo panics at the mention of, to arrest the young boy. He orders Hugo to empty his pockets, which he does, pulling out toys and toy parts that belong to the stand. Hugo eventually pulls out a small, battered cardboard notebook, and the man flips the pages. Here, we see pictures of what looks to be a mechanical man writing on a piece of paper on a table. At first the old man is astonished to see such pictures, and then his anger builds up when he asks Hugo about this book. When Hugo refuses answers and to leave without his notebook, the old man threatens to burn the book. Hugo runs off in sadness down the station halls that he does not have his notebook.

Following Hugo entering the vent again, he goes down the series of tunnels which leads to a cluster of secret apartments, which are all abandoned except for the one in use, his. In his room, he grabs matches and candles and sets off to his job as the one in the train station who keeps the clocks running, oiling the machinery and making sure the gears and levers moved accurately. Apparently, as it says at the end of the second chapter, page number 80 - "... Hugo kept going, until all twenty-seven clocks in the station had been attended to, just the way his uncle has taught him." - his uncle had assigned Hugo as his apprentice in keeping the clocks going.

After work, Hugo approached the old man's toy booth as he was closing up shop. The old man, irritated at Hugo's presence, asks him his name, which he hesitantly answers. After Hugo demands his notebook back, the old man tells him that he is going to, in fact, burn it. When the old man leaves the station, Hugo follows his footsteps, and they eventually arrive at his apartment building. He slams the door on Hugo, leaving him out in the cold, winter night. Hugo throws a stone at one of the windows, only to be answered to by the revealing of the girl he saw at the toy booth earlier looking out the window back at him. When she runs down to meet Hugo, he tells her that her grandfather stole his notebook. The girl explains to him that the old man, Papa Georges, wasn't a grandfather and not a thief. Hugo orders her to let him inside, which the girl refuses, but Hugo tells her that he won't go without his notebook, which he won't tell the girl about. Even though she doesn't let Hugo in the building, she does tell him that Papa Georges won't burn his notebook and that he should go back to the toy booth the following day and ask him for the notebook again. Realizing he had no choice, Hugo agreed and ran off.

The old man later gives Hugo a choice: Hugo can work at the toy booth to repay the old man for the stolen items, but the old man may or may not give the notebook back. Hugo ends up working at the toy booth and notices the old man playing cards. But, the old man is not just playing cards; he is doing magical things with them, like making one float! Hugo becomes fascinated with it and goes to the station's bookstore that Isabelle, the girl from Papa Georges home, is always in. Here, he sees Isabelle's friend, Etienne. Hugo plans to just take a magic book that he finds, but Etienne stops him and asks what he has. Hugo tells him, and Etienne gives him money to buy the book. Hugo starts learning the tricks within the book, and becomes an expert at them. At the same time, he is slowly repairing the mechanical man without his notebook.

Once Hugo has it completely finished, he just needs a heart-shaped key, which is exactly what Isabelle wears around her neck. The old man gets very angry at Hugo one day when Isabelle is at the booth, too. He gives Isabelle a hug and runs off to his room in the station, but at the same time, escapes with the key from Isabelle's necklace. Isabelle realizes what he has done, and follows him home. They get into a quarrel, and Isabelle ends up inserting the key into the mechanical man. The man produces a picture of a moon with a face and a rocket going into its eye. The picture was exactly what Hugo's late father had described to him as his favorite movie. The mechanical man then signs the picture as Papa Georges! Isabelle and Hugo are completely baffled, and run home to his apartment.

Isabelle doesn't want Hugo there, so she slams his fingers in the door. He screams, and Mama Jeanne, Papa Georges's wife, hears. So, Isabelle has no choice but to let Hugo come up with her. Mama Jeanne immediately recognizes him as the thief who stole from Georges booth. Jeanne tells them that Papa Georges is coming home very soon, and she doesn't want him to know that Hugo is there, so she tells them to go into the bedroom. Once she is in there with them, Hugo wants to show her the picture, but Isabelle does not. Hugo ends up showing Mama Jeanne, and she is petrified by it. Isabelle and Hugo both catch her glancing at the wardrobe in the bedroom, and then Mama Jeanne leaves the room. As soon as she does, they try to break into it to see if there is a clue about the picture. Hugo spots a place in the wardrobe that doesn't look the same, so Isabelle stands on a chair to bust it open. She succeeds, and inside finds a box. She grasps the box, but on her way down falls and hurts her foot. The box falls open and hundreds of papers fly out, each one with a beautiful drawing on it. They are all by Papa Georges. Mama Jeanne hears, but by this time Papa Georges is home, so they both come bursting in.

Mama Jeanne is once again petrified by the drawings, and very upset with the children, and Papa Georges has a nervous breakdown. He starts crying and mumbling nonsense. Mama Jeanne feels terrible, so lays him down in bed until he is asleep. The doctor comes later on and says Papa Georges has a fever and is very sick. Mama Jeanne refuses to tell the children about the drawings. So, Hugo leaves and returns to the train station. Hugo decides to go to the bookstore to find out more about the movie with the man in the moon (the one his dad described to him and the mechanical man drew). He finds nothing there. So, he leaves and goes down to the Paris Film Academy to use their library. The secretary won't let him in because of how grubby he is. But, Hugo is once again helped out by Etienne, who gets him in and helps him find the book he is looking for. Hugo discovers that Papa Georges was an incredibly famous movie-maker who made the movie with the man in the moon. But, the book says that Papa Georges died in the war. Etienne tells Hugo that his teacher wrote the book only a year ago. Hugo lets Isabelle know after he finds out, and also lets her know that he has arranged a meeting with Etienne and his teacher to come and see if Isabelle's home is truly the home of Papa Georges.

While Hugo is stealing some milk from a shop in the station, he overhears two people saying that his uncle, who never returned after a night out, was pronounced dead. His body was found at the bottom of a river, and was only identified by his name on the bottom of a liquor flask. Hugo accidentally drops his bottle of milk, and the shopkeeper catches him in the act. He runs off, making a narrow escape. He then goes off to the meeting at Isabelle's house, where Etienne's teacher has brought the movie with the man in the moon along with a projector. Hugo and Isabelle beg Mama Jeanne to let them watch it, even though it might disturb Papa Georges's sleep. Mama Jeanne finally agrees, and Hugo is awed by the movie. But, Papa Georges does hear the movie, and comes out. Mama Jeanne is terrified that he will have another breakdown, but he realizes how good his movies and drawings were, and locks himself in his room, leaving them wondering what he was doing. They heard all kinds of clunking noises and such, with periods of quiet in between. They got incredibly scared at what he was doing in there, so they figured out how to open the locked door. They go inside to find all the drawings hung up on the wall with a move projector set up, too. Papa Georges tells Hugo that he built the mechanical man very long ago, because he was a magician. Then, he became a movie-maker with Isabelle's parents, but they tragically died in a car crash. He then stopped making movies because he was so distraught. Papa Georges then asks Hugo to go and retrieve the mechanical man, which Hugo immediately agrees to. Hugo leaves, and almost has the mechanical man at the door, when he hears a knock. The Station Inspector and the two people from the shop Hugo stole the milk from burst in. Hugo tries to escape, but the Station Inspector catches him and puts him in a cell in his office. The Inspector leaves to get the police. They return, and open the cell to get Hugo, but Hugo runs for it. Hugo ends up running straight onto the train tracks. He then realizes that a train is pulling in at that same moment. He is so terrified that he becomes unable to move, but a hand out of the crowd pulls him up just in time. Hugo falls unconscious, and wakes up in the office of the Station Inspector, but this time lying with his head in Papa Georges lap. Isabelle is there, too. Hugo asks how they knew he was there, and Isabelle said she knew it was taking him too long. Papa Georges takes Hugo home and decides to take him in for good.

Hugo becomes part of the family and becomes Papa Georges's apprentice in magic. At the end, the family of four leaves to go to a tribute to Papa Georges's work in the film industry. Many people recovered Papa Georges's old movies so they could watch and enjoy them once again. They end up watching many of those movies that night.

Awards

• The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a Junior Library Guild Selection.
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret won the 2008 Caldecott Medal.
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret was a 2007 National Book Award Finalist, Young People's Literature.

Movie Adaptation

Warner Bros. and Initial Entertainment Group have picked up the screen rights to the book, and Martin Scorsese may be directing

from WIKIPEDIA...

THE AUTHOR

BRIAN SELZNICK

Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator and New York Times bestselling author Brian Selznick graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with the intention of becoming a set designer for the theatre. However, after spending three years selling books and painting windows for a children's bookstore in Manhattan, he was inspired to create children's books of his own. His books have received many awards and distinctions, including a Caldecott Honor for THE DINOSAURS OF WATERHOUSE HAWKINS and a Robert F. Sibert Honor for WHEN MARIAN SANG.

Brian Selznick travels extensively to work on his books. He spent six months in Washington D.C. for AMELIA AND ELEANOR GO FOR A RIDE and he traveled to England for THE DINOSAURS OF WATERHOUSE HAWKINS. More recently, Brian visited Walt Whitman's childhood home in West Hills, New York for WALT WHITMAN: Words for America.

His most recent work is the groundbreaking title, THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET. Combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, he creates an entirely new reading experience. "Several years ago, I read a review of a book called EDISON'S EVE: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life by Gaby Wood," says Selznick. "The review mentioned the true story of a collection of elaborate mechanical windup figures (known as automata), which had once been owned and loved by a great French film director named George Méliès. These amazing machines were eventually donated by Méliès to a museum in Paris, but the collection was neglected in a damp attic and eventually had to be thrown away. I imagined a boy finding these broken, rusted machines, and thus Hugo and his story were born."

Brian Selznick lives in Brooklyn, New York and San Diego, California.

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