I've heard good things for years about The Invention of Hugo Cabret, but I was always a little intimidated because it's such a huge book. It turns out it's half graphic novel, with large full-spread illustrations that you flip through rapidly, in a way that reminds of a flickery black-and-white movie -- appropriate because the book touches on the invention of the motion picture in France. So, it took just over a train ride to read the whole thing -- nowhere near as intimidating as I'd thought. The story suffers a little from "I can't tell you why I'm doing this because the book would be too short it's my secret" syndrome, but the illustrations are gorgeous and Hugo is a plucky young hero.
FuzzyCo grade: A-
Comments
I thought it was a good young adult novel, and my 8th graders enjoyed reading that one. They have yet to be exposed to the "horrible secret" plot device as much as we have.
Posted by: Bryan Bowden | December 25, 2008 5:13 PM