Written and Illustrated by Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press, 2007
Genre: Historical Fiction; picture book
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
533 pages
The book starts out with an introduction from Professor H. Alcofrisbas who says the story takes place in 1931 in Paris and it's about a boy named Hugo who discovered a mysterious drawing that changed his life. Then the story really starts, and we see a young boy, Hugo run through a crowd and climb into a crevice behind a clock tower. He watches an old man who runs a toy stand across the street. When the old man falls asleep Hugo quietly crosses the street, but as he gets close to the toy stand the old man wakes up and accuses him of stealing, he grabs Hugo and a notebook falls out. The old man picks it up and sees some mysterious sketches of what appears to be a mechanical man. The old man questions Hugo about the pictures and when Hugo doesn't answer the old man keeps the notebook and shoos Hugo away. Hugo runs back to the clocks in the station, and his small apartment behind them, he does his job winding the clocks, just like his uncle had taught him to do. Hugo returns to the toy shop as the old man is closing up and demands his notebook, the old man refuses and says he's going to burn it and report Hugo to the inspector. The old man starts walking away, and Hugo follows him all the way to an old apartment, where the old man slams the door in his face. Hugo throws a small rock at a window of the apartment and a young girl appears, she comes outside and asks Hugo what he wants, he tells her that he wants his notebook, she tells him that she will try and get it for him, and that He is to ask the old man for it back tomorrow. Hugo returns to his little apartment and uncovers the mechanical man. There is a short flashback of Hugo and his father. His father is telling him about the automaton he found in the top floor of the museum where he works as a clockmaker and no one knows where it came from, and it's broken but it looks like it could write. Hugo's father due to Hugo's pushing and his own fascination decides to try and fix it. Sadly, one night as Hugo's dad is working on the machine he gets locked in by the guard and the place catches on fire, no one knows how the fire started. Hugo's uncle comes to get him and take him to live with him fixing the clocks in the station. Hugo, after looking at the wreckage of the fire, sees the mechanical man, and decides to take it and his father's notebook and try to finish it. Hugo's uncle disappeared and Hugo was left in charge of keeping the station clocks going. The book jumps back to Hugo in the present, and he returns to the old man toy's shop, who hands him a pile of ashes, Hugo is crushed, and crawls back into bed. Going to get coffee later he runs into the girl he met the night before and she tells him the book wasn't burned. He returns to the toy shop and confronts the old man, who gives Hugo a job at the toy store, it's a start. Hugo and Isabelle meet up again and she wants to know more about Hugo and the notebook. He refuses and ends up running. As she falls trying to chase him a key comes out of her shirt around her neck, and he asks where she got it. She refuses to answer because Hugo won't answer her questions and they part ways. The next day Hugo returns to the toy shop and the old man accuses him of taking the notebook and Isabelle shows up holding the notebook. Hugo hugs her and runs away. He returns to his apartment and pulls out the necklace he had grabbed off of Isabelle, and he turns the mechanical man around and just before he turns, Isabelle shows up and yells at him. He turns the key and the gears start turning and the man starts drawing. He draws a picture of a moon with a face and a telescope coming out of his eye. So part two begins, the kids realize that the man signed a name, and Isabelle runs home to ask the woman she lives with, the old man's husband about it all. Hugo follows her. mama Jeanne who is completely freaked out by the picture, the story that went along with it, and the necklace that was hers. She refuses to talk any more about it. The children search the room as Mama Jeanne leaves to distract her husband. They find a box of drawings and just as they look through them Georges, the old man, runs into the room and rips up the pictures, yelling frantically. Hugo leaves the house and returns to his apartment to sleep. The next morning Hugo goes to the film academy library to look for clues to the picture, thinking that it reminded him of one his father's old favorite movies. Hugo finds what he's looking for, it's the same picture from a movie called "A Trip to the Moon" by the filmmaker Georges Melies who was the first to realize the movies didn't have to depict only real life. The biography along with the movie card however said that Georges was dead, but Hugo knew he was not. Hugo writes the author of the book about the movie and tells him to come to Georges apartment, but that was a week away. Finally the day arrives and Monsieur Tabard shows up at the apartment, he pulls out a projector and they watch the old movies, but Georges takes the slideshow into a locked room. Isabelle picks the lock because everyone is worried. Georges is drawing at his desk, and the story comes out about him building the automaton and putting together movies. He asks where the automaton is, and Hugo says he'll go get it. Unfortunately on his way back to the apartment, Hugo is caught stealing by the inspector and was being taken to prison, he tried to run and ended up in front of a speeding train, the inspector grabs him, and Hugo passed out. When he woke up Georges was holding him and they saved him from the inspector and took him home. They found the broken automaton that Hugo dropped. The book jumps forward six months to a night at the French film academy honoring Georges. Hugo was dubbed, Professor Alcofrisbas, one of Georges characters, and it ends with the explanation that Hugo in fact wrote the book.
I would recommend this to any child with an imagination.
I think the only controversy along with this book would be related to the length, though it's not really a problem.
I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! It was soo creative and well done. The drawn pictures combined with the actual pictures are excellent and add so much to the story. It was well written, exciting, and I couldn't put it down.
My rating 6 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment