Book Review: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (spoiler free review)

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

I originally read this book about 8 years ago, but decided to reread it this year because I love this book.

Let's get into the review!

I first mentioned this book in this post: Book Spotlight: My Top 10 Illustrated Books (opens in new window). This book was on that list. I did a brief review in that post, but I feel like this book is so good that it deserves a review post all to itself.

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This book is about 12-year-old Hugo Cabret, an orphan who lives in a train station in Paris in the 1930s. This is a historical fiction novel. It has a lot of historical elements sprinkled in (as it should), and gives a good introductory insight into the history of film and cinema.

This is a novel told in words and pictures. It's very unique and is the first children's novel/chapter book to receive the Caldecott Medal, an award given annually to the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children." The Caldecott and Newbery medals are considered the most prestigious awards for American children's books. 

This book is 537 pages long, which is actually quite long for a children's/middle grade, however, in all actuality, the book is actually about 300 pages because 284 pages is just pure pencil drawings or photographs.

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This book (and the movie) caused me and my mother to spiral into a rabbit hole of film history. Both the book and movie reference original films, such as The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (viewable on YouTube; film was released in 1895), which was one of the original films created. It was a 50 second silent film that was made by the Lumière Brothers, who were thought of to have the first public screening in film history. The train arrives at the station and ends up out of frame, which caused the audience then to get startled because they thought the train was really coming toward them!

Both the movie and book reference Georges Méliès (who is crucial to the plot), a French film director known for special effects and films such as A Trip to the Moon (1902; also available on YouTube; loosely based on From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne), which is regarded as one of the most influential films in cinema, and The Impossible Voyage (1904). He made over 500 films, but only about 200 have survived through war and other trauma.

There are other references, such as a reference to The Clock Store, which was a Silly Symphony short released by Walt Disney Studios in 1931 and Safety Last! from 1923.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of black and white movies (because of two reasons: I've always loved color and two, I nearly went completely colorblind because of a medication I was taking [long story; maybe I'll discuss it in the future]), however, I enjoyed watching The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station and A Trip to the Moon with my mother, and have since watched both a few times. Around the time that I watched the movie and read the book, I actually drew a picture of a scene in A Trip to the Moon (the scene where their ship [a capsule shaped like a bullet] crashes into the Man in the Moon's eye).

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (Lumiere Brothers, 1895)

A Trip to the Moon (Georges Melies, 1902)

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Overall, this is one of my favorite books ever. It's a combination of picture book and chapter book, so it's the kind of book that's right up my alley. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves children's books and film history. I'd also recommend it to people who like novelty. It's also a great way to introduce children to chapter books while still having a lot of illustrations.

I rate The Invention of Hugo Cabret 5 out of 5 stars. It's a fantastic book, and I love it.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! 

See you Thursday, 

Lexi K🖌