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Local children's librarian highlights titles Date published: 3/6/2007
N EWLY ORPHANED When his uncle disappears one night, Hugo takes over the job of repairing the station's many clocks, hoping to maintain the fiction that his uncle is still at work. But that's not Hugo's only secret: In his hidden apartment he keeps a broken automaton--a mechanical windup figure holding a pen--that his father was trying to repair just before Brian Selznick's "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" has all the elements of a good story: mysteries, secrets, orphans, an atmospheric setting and The first few dozen pages are entirely wordless, with only Selznick's trademark pencil drawings telling the tale. With striking use of black and white, cross hatchings and dramatically varying perspectives, Selznick tantalizes readers with the mystery of where and why Hugo is in hiding. A few pages on, drawings of his father's notebook, where his plans to repair the automaton are recorded, explain more clearly than words just what this mechanical man looks like. The brilliant 36-page-long picture sequence showing Hugo escaping from the station master through the tunnels and stairs of the station has the breathless pace of a thriller. Selznick has also used old movie stills--the early filmmaker George Melies figures significantly in the plot--to tell the story, which owes as much to the tradition of silent films as it does to traditional narrative. The book has already risen to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. Warner Brothers plans to produce a film based on the book, and rumor has it that Martin Scorsese may direct. Wow!
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