The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Pros: told through images and text, some tense moments, fun characters, fast read

Cons: most of the conflict is due to Hugo keeping secrets

Hugo Cabret lives in the Timekeeper's room inside a Parisian train station. When an elderly toy maker catches him stealing a toy mouse, the man takes a notebook Hugo received from his deceased father. The notebook contains images of an automaton Hugo's trying to fix, images that cause a startling reaction from the old man.

The book follows Hugo as he tries to get the notebook back and interacts with the man and his goddaughter, Isabelle. There are old movies, magic, clocks, thefts, and lies. The best part of the book is that the movies and automata discussed are all real.

This is a fun - and fast - read. Some sections are told through full page illustrations rather than text, giving the book the feeling of a movie. The immediacy of the action and Hugo's point of view narrative enhance that feeling.

There are some tense moments, especially towards the end of the book.

While I can understand Hugo's fear of being taken from his current home and his fear of what would happen to him, it has to be said that most of the problems he encounters throughout the book are due to his inability to trust others, even after they've been proved trustworthy and his compulsive need to keep secrets. Things would have resolved much faster had he told Georges why the notebook was so important to him.

Though it's a thick book (due to the images) it really is an easy read, perfect for readers of all ages.

It struck me as gimmicky when I first picked it up. Pages and pages of pictures without text and then suddenly text and more text. I picked it up and put it back down. Then I read a review (maybe Nancy Pearl's) and the reviewer raved about it. I decided to give it another chance. It turned out to be more powerful than a traditional novel for children and more powerful than a picture book. A mystery that is clever and unusual. I think it will go over big in my library.

Such a fun book! I loved that the illustrations added to the story. The pace of the book moved rather quickly. Hugo is a great character to follow– stuck in a life of sadness and nightmares, he found a way to dream. The Invention of Hugo Cabret was a story full of hope and about young people growing up.

Most of all, it was a wonderful tribute to the film industry.

This was a cool book about a young boy, Hugo, who lives in Paris in 1931. He's been orphaned and is living hidden within the Paris train station. The story involves a toy shop owner, a young girl, many clocks and an automaton. The story is told alternately in words and pictures and as such reads very fast. The book itself is big, fat doorstopper but I actually read it in only two days. It was fun, I may read it someday to my kiddos.

A good story. It would be three stars, but the illustrations are worth one star all their own, especially the ones of the bookstore. I was surprised at how close the movie kept to the book, with the exception of the Station Inspector's character. The one thing that bothers me is that the reason for Papa Georges's anguished bitterness about his lost career isn't really clear. I think the movie kind of hinted at the Great War as being part of the reason, which makes sense, but in the book it seemed to be more about increased competition in movie-making that resulted in him being “forced” to sell his films so they could be made into something so banal and ignoble as shoe-heels. A little heavy-handed and pretty silly when you think about World War 2 on its way in a few years when selling some films to keep soldiers in boots would be well worth the sacrifice. Well, that's a bit sanctimonious and blowhardy of me, I guess; the story takes place in the early thirties, so whatever, Laura. Maybe the idea is just that it is torture for a great artist not to be able to fulfill their purpose, and for all I know that is entirely plausible; not being a great artist I wouldn't know.