~ by Abrah
- 8 stars
- ages 10 - 15
- pages 525
At the surface
The Invention of Hugo Cabret appears to be simply a book about an orphan boy named Hugo Cabret who lives alone winding the clocks in a Paris train station. He steals parts from a toy shop to fix a mechanical man, or the automaton, that he believes will convey a message from his father. Strangely, these parts fit perfectly into the mechanical man. As Hugo befriends a young girl named Isabelle, he realizes that his automaton my just be more than his father's hobby, but a link to give a new hope to a long forgotten master mind, and his only means to a new start. This artful story told half in words, and half in drawings (hence the huge number of pages) tells a story about a lonely boy and a despairing old man, and how they manage to help each other find a new start.
But, if you are like me you can't resist digging just a bit deeper. It doesn't take much digging to realize that whether or not the author intended to, he conveyed some compelling truths about the way God made our human nature.
Hugo sates: “I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”
And that is really what this whole story is about. That is what so many of our lives are about... Men without a purpose are like broken machines, they can't do what they are created to do. But, most of all men without a savior are broken. Hugo, the old man, Isabelle, and you and I are all broken machines, and willingly broken. There is no one who can fix us but Jesus Christ. This book really is quite sad if you think enough about it. Most of the characters are looking for meaning, and fulfillment. It seems that they manage to find at least a new start, but still I sorrow for them, because the purpose they find can't last without Christ. Selznick, (though probably unconsciously) tells us our problem. Men have a purpose, yet so many are broken because they don't have meaning. But, he fails to acknowledge how we can be healed.
***
Putting all that aside, this is just an engrossing, modern classic, that could definitely be read over and over.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a book every,
discerning young persons library should contain! As an added bonus this is actually a fictional story about the man behind some of the earliest movies, Georges Méliès. I haven't read many books about early movies, and even less set in 1930's France,
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a genre all it's own. I said it before, and I have to say it again, this book is engrossing, even with it's flawed world view!
 |
| Hugo Cabret |
and I don't think I am alone. So
I can't help but mention Selznick's writing style. It is artful, yet simple, down - to - earth, and eloquent in its own special way. There is a reason
The Invention of Hugo Cabret won a Caldecott Medal! He manages to removes his own feeling and opinions from the story and really lets us get in to the mind of Hugo. Plus he manages to pull off a story told half in pictures, you have to be absolutely brilliant to do that. The New York Times praises the novel in this way:
"Evokes wonder... like a silent film on paper."
My sentiments exactly!
***
Negative Elements: (none being best, 5 being worst)
Violence - 1
Hugo dreams about a train accident that happened years before, when a train derailed, barreled through the station before bursting through the walls to the street below where is finally stopped, killing several people. Hugo is almost run over by a train. His fingers are painfully smashed in a door.
Profanity - 1
Romance or Sexuality - none
 |
| The Movie |
Other - 2
Hugo, an orphan consistently lies and steals to stay alive. The author neither condemns nor condones the practice, only tells it how it is. Good and bad things come of this practice. Isabelle (forbidden by her guardians to attend the movies) and Hugo sneak in to see a movie they have not paid for.
Closing Comments:
Like so many of the books I review this book also has a wonderful movie, going simply by the title of Hugo. I was impressed by how closely they stuck to the story, another great film to look into.
Summary: In the lands of Middle Earth, there dwelled a dark lord named Morgoth (or Melkor) whose evil knew no bounds. He was at one time one of the Valar, a realm of the elves, but he wanted more than what he was given; he wanted to control all things in his realm. He came to Middle Earth and built a kingdom for himself in the northern mountains of Angband, where he created his own armies. In the year FA 462, there lived a man named Húrin, who broke the siege of Barad Eithel, in which his father and countless others died, leaving him to eventually stand alone. Morgoth ordered that he be taken alive as a captive, but Húrin defied Morgoth, and in turn, Morgoth cursed him, his wife Morwen, and all of his kin and set Húrin in a high place of Thangorodrim, where he sat for twenty-eight years seeing the world through the dark lord’s eyes. And that is where this story begins… Húrin and Morwen had three children, Túrin, their oldest and a son, Erwen, (also called Lalaith) who died when she was young, and Niënor, their youngest daughter. When Túrin was not ten years old, Morwen (who was pregnant with Niënor at the time) sent him to live in Doriath, an elven kingdom, to live in safety, where he was fostered by King Thingol. He lived there for many years in the king’s favour, until the death of the elf-man Saeros (who despised Túrin) made to look like his doing made him flee form the king’s wrath and into the forests south of Teiglin. 
At the surface The Invention of Hugo Cabret appears to be simply a book about an orphan boy named Hugo Cabret who lives alone winding the clocks in a Paris train station. He steals parts from a toy shop to fix a mechanical man, or the automaton, that he believes will convey a message from his father. Strangely, these parts fit perfectly into the mechanical man. As Hugo befriends a young girl named Isabelle, he realizes that his automaton my just be more than his father's hobby, but a link to give a new hope to a long forgotten master mind, and his only means to a new start. This artful story told half in words, and half in drawings (hence the huge number of pages) tells a story about a lonely boy and a despairing old man, and how they manage to help each other find a new start. 
