The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

4th grade and up

This book won the Caldecott medal for its depiction of a Paris orphan and his encounter with an enigmatic old toymaker in the early 1930s. While the popular view of Caldecott winners tends to focus on picture books for young children, Selznick absolutely deserved to win the medal despite the book’s length – over 500 pages – and intended older audience. The novel may look like another of the door-stopper books that have come into vogue with the popularity of the Harry Potter series, but because the illustrations tell most of the story, it never feels overwhelming. Selznick takes his cue from silent films of early cinematic history with a frame that encourages young readers to imagine the action of the story taking place on a screen as the music of a nickelodeon dances in the background and the sun rises on a new day in Hugo’s miserable life. As in his The Robot King, Selznick draws his characters with an engineer’s precision, with his cogs and gears taking on lives of their own alongside the human characters. This fascination with the mechanical world becomes almost magical, and Hugo seems an apprentice magician as he learns the secrets of his father’s automaton, helps an old movie master regain the joy of his work, and,ultimately, creates some meaning for his life.

As I might have expected from a Caldecott winner, the illustrations portray the sense of wonder at the world that Hugo and the toymaker rediscover in their time together. The stills from early silent films are like scenes from a dream, with fairies and mermaids and fantastic creatures to take the reader’s mind to worlds that are at once unknown and terribly familiar.

I am particularly drawn to this type of work because of its nostalgia for the limitless possibilities of childhood. Despite Hugo’s destitution and desolation, Selznick always imbues the boy with a hope that he can bring himself out of his desperate situation if only he can fix the automaton and create some link with his father. This hope that his skill can help him change his world is an important one to convey to children -- particularly as they move into intermediate grades and toward a deeper understanding of themselves -- in that they need to see their own potential to effect change in a world that often takes for granted children’s powerlessness.