The Invention of Hugo Cabret in 100+ Books in 2025

Aug 06, 2010 Ronyell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: summer-100-book-challenge-2010, children-s-book, my-blog-reviews, read-in-2010, caldecott-medal, 1001-children-s-books

Words cannot describe how much I loved this book! “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” is one of the first chapter books to win a Caldecott Medal and is cleverly written and illustrated by Brian Selznick and it is about how an orphaned boy named Hugo finds out the secrets contained in his most prized possession…a mechanical man from his dead father. “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” is clearly one of the most exciting and amazing books ever created for children!

Brian Selznick has created a book that goes Words cannot describe how much I loved this book! “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” is one of the first chapter books to win a Caldecott Medal and is cleverly written and illustrated by Brian Selznick and it is about how an orphaned boy named Hugo finds out the secrets contained in his most prized possession…a mechanical man from his dead father. “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” is clearly one of the most exciting and amazing books ever created for children!

Brian Selznick has created a book that goes beyond what any children’s book has gone before. Brian Selznick has made this story extremely dramatic and exciting at the same time as it details the adventures of an orphaned boy in Paris and how he tries to uncover the mystery of the mechanical man. Brian Selznick makes the characters in this book extremely memorable, especially the main character Hugo Cabret as Hugo is shown as a boy who has a huge ambition and yet he always feels lonely and insecure when he is around other people, since he spent most of his life alone and children will easily sympathize with his situation as any child might feel a bit secluded from other people whenever they lose a loved one. Another memorable character is Isabelle, the toy maker’s daughter who is shown as being a strong heroine and she is always shown yearning for more information about life that she will not let anyone get in her way, including Hugo. Brian Selznick also makes the story extremely creative as the book is set up as two pages are filled with writing while the next few pages are full of illustrations only. Brian Selznick’s illustrations are amazingly beautiful as they are mainly in black and white colors, but the characters look so realistic that they make this book extremely beautiful to look at. The illustrations also help move the story along as there are two pages full of writing while the next four or five pages are full of illustrations that detail what happens in the story and the next few pages are full of writing again while continuing the story. Brian Selznick illustrates the characters’ expressions in such a realistic manner that ranges from shock to happiness that children will easily relate to the characters.

“The Invention of Hugo Cabret” is a truly distinguished children’s book that is ahead of its time and it will always remain to be one of the best books ever created! I would recommend this book to children ages seven and up since the length of this book might bored smaller children.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog ...more

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Dec 19, 2008 Dolly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: graphic-novels-comics, 2009, caldecott-medal, historical-fiction, france-french, picture-book-club, childrens

When I first saw this book, I thought, "No way will I be able to read this to our girls!"

But then I took a closer look at it and saw that there were over 150 pictures and that it wouldn't be as tough as I thought.

Still, with about 525+ pages, it took a very long time (and a few renewals on our library loan) to get through it.

It was well worth it, although I know that our oldest enjoyed the book far more than did her younger sister.

I would recommend this book for children at least 6 years old ...more

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May 07, 2009 Jgrace rated it it was amazing

Shelves: jgrace, play-book-tag, read-in-2009, judithg, art, france, europe, historical-fiction, picture-book, adoption

The Invention of Hugo Cabret- Brian Selznick
Audio performance by Jeff Woodman
4 stars

Wouldn’t you know, the first time I read something that could be tagged a graphic novel, I listened to it first. So this review is in two parts, first the hard copy and then the audio.

Hugo Cabret is an orphan living in the walls of a Paris train station during the time between the world wars. The location and its historical setting alone would make this an unusual book for its target audience of early adolesce ...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Julia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, historical-fiction, graphic-novel, illustrated

Hugo is a Parisian orphan living in the train station, in the 1930’s, where his uncle was in charge of the clocks. His father was a clock maker. He meets a toy maker there, who turns out to be the early film magician Georges Melies, who has signed over his films. According to this novel, told in many beautiful panels, as well as words, Melies also made automatons and Hugo is able to repair them. This is beautiful, gorgeous and lyrical makes me want to see the movie based on it “Hugo.”

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Feb 01, 2015 Grace rated it really liked it

The illustrations alone make this book wonderful :)

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Aug 05, 2008 Faith-Anne rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2008, my-favorites, children-novels

I love this book for being so different. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. I love the combination of hand drawn illustrations & photographs. It's a thick book, but many pages only contain illustrations. I read this in between other books. It was a quick read. It was the perfect book to pick up on a rainy afternoon. ...more

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