The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Author: Brian Selznick Lexile level: 820L
Genre: Mystery, Fantasy, Grade level: 5th
Graphic Novel Interest level: 3rd-7th
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is told in two parts as two seperate stories.
Hugo Cabret is a boy living in Paris in the 1930s. Day after day, he maintains the clocks throughout the train station, where he lives alone, and he steals mechanical toys and parts from a toy shop in the station. Hugo is trying to fix an automation - a small mechanical man that Hugo believes contains a secret message for him - that his late father had created, having only his father's sketches in a notebook for guidance. One day Hugo is caught by the shop owner and the notebook is confiscated! Having to keep quiet, as to not be found by the Station Inspectors who will send him to an orphanage when they discover he is living alone, Hugo must find out what this shop owner knows about his father, his notebook, and his automation. More importantly, he must continue working to fix the automation.
The toy shop owner's goddaughter, Isabelle, is willing to help Hugo retrieve his father's notebook and solve the mystery of the automation, not realizing that she has the key to engage the automation. The kids now have to find out how they are connected, and what it all means.
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This book is written in both text and pictures. Rich with imagery, this book is fantastic for exploring how mental pictures can be created within the text.
This book also provides several oportunities for writting assignments. Students can be assigned different pages or sections of the book and be assigned to either write passages to replace where the pictures are, or draw pictures to replace where the text is.
More resources (wonderful for a webquest or lit. circle) can be found at theinventionofhugocabret.com.
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