The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick

The movie trailer looked intriguing, so I thought I would try the book first to get an idea of the plot. Winner of the Caldecott award, the story is told through a combination of text and sequences of drawings. The story uses many of the conventions of children's literature - the child orphan on his own; a mysterious puzzle to solve; a seemingly unfriendly old guy who turns out to be misunderstood. So the characters are not particularly original, but the drawings are masterful. Selznick uses the story to pay homage to his favorite early filmmaker, Georges Melies. A quick read.500 pages