The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Scholastic, 2007. Tr. $22.99, ISBN 978-0-439-81378-5.

 

What’s it about?

This gorgeous, cinematic cross between a picture and a novel, features the orphaned Hugo Cabret, who is a thief and a scavenger heavy with secrets. When the grand-daughter of a toy-maker befriends him, Hugo begins to unravel the mystery behind the automaton his father left him, and its creator.

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Twelve-year-old Parisian orphan Hugo Cabret’s father died in a fire at a museum and left his son with a damaged automaton. He went to live with his abusive uncle, who teaches him to steal. When his uncle disappears, Hugo doesn’t let on. Instead, he lives in the train station, becoming a thief and scavenger, and keeping up with his uncle’s job of keeping the city’s clocks running.  Then Hugo is caught stealing from a toy-maker, who is curious about the automaton pictured in Hugo’s notebook (which he initially thinks was also stolen).  Intrigued, he hires Hugo at his shop. The toy-maker’s grand-daughter Isabelle befriends Hugo. Together, the two eventually unravel the mystery of behind the automaton—and the real identity of Isabelle’s grandfather.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is such a unique book, it is tough to categorize. When it won the 2008 Caldecott Medal, it was the first novel to win, and surprised a lot of people because the Caldecott is awarded to picture book illustrators, not novel or graphic novel artists. It's tough to call a novel, though, when half the book is comprised of Selznick's detailed, breath-taking, cinematic pencil sketches. There are also reproductions of drawings as well as film still from the mind of innovative film-maker Georges Meilies, one of the first to employ special effects in his work. The text and pictures are integrated seamlessly. This is a page-turner with a well-paced storyline that is just as intricate as the illustrations, with each character and detail clicking together to form a complex, mind-boggling narrative. This book is so cinematic in feel that it was a question of when, not if the book would hit the big screen. Martin Scorsese directed the film, which is in theatres now.  

   

Genre label: Mystery/suspense, historical fiction

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-9

Subjects: Orphans, film-makers, automatons, Georges Meilies

Read-alikes:

This book is so unique, there are no true read-alikes. Readers who enjoy this book, however, will probably also like Konigsberg’s From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Awards:

Caldecott Medal (2008)

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Konigsburg, E.L. From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1972 (c. 1967). Paperback $5.50, ISBN 0-689-71181-6.

What’s it about?

Twelve-year-old Claudia and her younger brother Jamie run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where they encounter a beautiful statue of an angel that may or may not have been sculpted by Michelangelo. Jamie and Claudia are determined to solve the mystery of the angel’s creator, and uncover more than they bargained for.

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Twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid feels unappreciated and tired of her ordinary existence, and sets out to run away and teach her family a little lesson. She is a creature of comfort, however, so the place she runs away to must be beautiful and comfortable. The Metropolitan Museum of Art fits the bill. She needs money to pull this off successfully, and invites her nine-year-old, penny-pinching brother Jamie along. The two have fun evading the guards, finding places to sleep undiscovered, and blending in with school groups. When a gorgeous statue of an angel appears at the museum, enveloped in mystery, the Claudia decides that her new mission is to find out if the sculpture is indeed the work of Michelangelo. Their detective work eventually leads them to the doorstep of the uber-wealthy elderly Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the woman who sold the statue to the museum for a measly $225 dollars. The two uncover the secrets of the statue by telling the secret-loving woman their own secrets of how they managed to evade discovery at the museum.

Although this book is a light-hearted mystery, it is also a work of art. Konigsburg’ has crafted believable characters who behave believably in a rather implausible situation. This makes this story all the funnier. Jamie has the best lines: when he is nearly discovered by a guard when he’s hiding in the men’s room, the startled guard asks “Where did you come from?” Jamie responds: “Mother always said I came from Heaven.” This book is extremely funny, but it has a deeper undertone that sets it apart from other amusing adventure stories. Claudia’s deep need to escape the prosaic is not a typical reason that a child runs away. Mrs.Frankweiler is not a typical art collector, either. She treasures the secrets and stories behind each piece more than the monetary value. There are also some poignant moments. Mrs. Frankweiler, in exchange for the children’s secrets about their adventure, bequeaths Michelangelo’s signed sketch of the angel. On their ride home, the two children decide that Mrs. Frankweiler (who confesses to the children that she’d always wanted to be a mother) will be their secret grandmother.

There is an amazing twist to Konigsberg’s classic mystery. In 1995, a professor noticed a statue of a cupid in the courtyard of the French Embassy’s cultural services building, which is on Fifth Avenue. She became convinced that this was actually a Michelangelo sculpture.  She investigated the statue and announced that it was indeed an early work by Michelangelo. Konigsberg’s fans were stunned, and wondered if she’d known about this statue all along. She didn’t, but this story adds a new and special twist to this timeless novel.    

Genre: Mystery, Adventure, Humor

Reading Level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-6

Read-alikes:

Balliet’s Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3

Raskin’s Westing Game

Subjects: Runaways, Museums, Sibling Relationships, Art of the Renaissance

Awards:

Newbery Medal (1968)

ALA Notable Book

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The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin

Berk, Josh. The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin. Borzoi, 2010. Tr. $16.99 ISBN 978-0-375-85699-0

What’s it about?

Will Halpin, a hefty deaf high school student attends a “mainstream” high school. When one of his fellow students, a morally bankrupt son of a casino owner, Pat Chambers, falls to his death on a field trip to the local coal mine where Halpin’s own great-uncle “Dummy” Halpin died, he and his buddy Devon Smiley solve the case.

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Will Halpin, an expert lip-reader and amateur sleuth, whose IM handle is “Hamburger Halpin” is attending a mainstream high school after years of deaf school—and while he is finding the social lives of his fellow students intriguing and rich in irony, he wishes he wasn’t the butt of jokes, along with his new friend Devon Smiley, who is on the bottom of the social heap, so low on the food chain, that “even teachers and C-listers rip on him.” Will begins to fall for a beautiful, popular girl Leigha, who appears to be beaten by her bully boyfriend, the popular and morally bankrupt Pat Chambers. When Will’s class takes a field trip to visit the local coal mines, and Pat falls to his death, there are numerous suspects. Will and Devon team together to solve the crime, and their exploits place them in the thick of the investigation—and under suspicion.

This is one of darker, funnier books I’ve read in the past few years. Will has a self-deprecating sense of humor, and has a keen eye for the social drama in others’ lives and writes his sarcastic observations in a notebook. His humorous IM and text exchanges with Devon further add levity to this black comedy. Will’s narration is strong, and never self-pitying. The reader will find his letter to Leigha both naïve and hilarious.  There are many moment in this book where I cringed and laughed at the same time. This is a timely novel, filled with pop culture and technological references, but the themes of disability, crime, corruption and friendship are timeless.

Genre:  Humor, Mystery, Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Reading level: Grades 5-6

Interest level: Grades 6-12

Subjects: Crime, Deafness, Friendship, Popularity, High School

Read alikes:

Edmond’s Happyface

Schmidt’s Okay for Now

Bray’s Going Bovine 

King’s Please Ignore Vera Dietz