The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Copyright: 2007
Number of Pages: 525
Age: 12+ years

Summary:
In the story of Hugo Cabret, is a boy who lives on his own, surviving through theft and living in a clock tower in the train station. Before this Hugo lived with his father. Him and his father loved to fix things, mostly clocks. One day Hugo's father found a machine in the attic of the musem that he worked at. It needed a lot of fixing, however, this machine was special. It was a robot that was able to write. They both believed that there was a secret message in the machine. So the father spent some time trying to fix the robot. One night the father was accidently locked in the attic while working on the robot and the museum caught on fire. The father died tragically that night. That was when Hugo went to work for his Uncle in the clock tower in the train station. One night Hugo's uncle disappeared and never returned. Hugo didn't want to be put in an orphanage so he tried to run the clocks himself, pretending to be his uncle.
The rotbot was the only thing left in the fire, so Hugo took it back to his tower. It became his obsession to fix it, because perhaps the message the robot was going to write was from his father. In order to fix this he had to have the right parts. So he went and stole various parts from the toy stand across the street. One day the old man who owned it caught Hugo. He took Hugo's notebook that had his notes in it to fix the robot. Hugo wanted it back so badly that he kept coming back asking for the notebook. The old man said that he had to him why Hugo wanted the notebook back so badly. Hugo refused to tell. So the old man kept the book. Hugo ended up working for the old man to earn back his notebook. Hugo met a little girl that worked there too. She tried to help Hugo to get his notebook back. When Hugo went back to his tower one night he stared fiddling with the robot to see if he could fix it without his notebook. He eventually figured it out without his notebook. The only piece missing was a key in the shape of a heart. Hugo saw that the necklace around the little girls neck looked like it would fit, so he stole it. Right when he was about to put in the key the girl came running in, seeing that he sole her key. They turned the robot on together and the message was a picture from Hugo's fathers favorite childhood movie. Eventually through various events the children found out the old man who owned the toy stand used to make famous movies. He was the director of Hugo's favorite childhood movie. The children took their discovery to the old man and he became inspired again from his old movies. The old man was later on celebrated for all the movie works that he had done. Hugo ended up living with the old man, his wife, and the little girl.

Who would benefit from this book?
Anyone could. This book is a vey interesting book because of the twists and turns that it provides. It would definately be a book for older children to read because younger children may not be able to comprehend what would be going on in the story.
What problems might this book cause?
The problem would be with Hugo's behavior. He steals and that could put out the message that its ok to do that.
My reaction:
I really enjoyed this book because of the plot, it kept me guessing. Also because of the style of writing. It was a good chunk of pictures that told part of the story.