The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

  I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret as an assignment for my class. When I first borrowed the book from my mother, I said, “This thing is HUGE!” She told me that it was mostly pictures and that it doesn’t take long to read, so I got started. I finished it pretty quickly, it has a ton of pictures. While I was reading it, I would sometimes flip through the illustration pages quickly, my boyfriend would ask, why are you flipping the pages so fast, don’t you have to read them? But when you read this book, you realize that the movement on the illustration pages sometimes makes you want to turn it quickly as if is it a flip-book, other times, you want to study the drawing. One example of when I couldn’t wait to turn the page was between pages 240-250, waiting to see what the automaton was drawing!

  I loved how the story was based in a train station, the way it was described through pictures and words, made me feel like I could picture it and it was back in the early 1900’s, which I am not even sure when the story was supposed to be based. I really enjoyed how the view that you were given, again through pictures or words, had you looking through things, like clocks or waiting for curtains to open.

  When I looked at the book again, after reading it, I realized how mesmerized I was right away. The first 45 pages are just images and they make you want to know what is going on. I had no clue what the book was about, then I looked at those pages and I had some idea, but I wanted to know more. I thought it was great that I sort of got the option to create my own story right away.