Featured Company:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Today's shopping tips: "Be wise in purchasing ..... find best value one"

---

Manufacturer: Scholastic Press
List Price: $24.99
Our Price: $15.49
You Save: $ 9.50 ( 38% )
(prices subject to change)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Average Ratings:

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life and his most precious secret are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo’s dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780439813785
ISBN: 0439813786
Label: Scholastic Press
Manufacturer: Scholastic Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 544
Publication Date: 2007-01-30
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Studio: Scholastic Press


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• The Mysterious Benedict Society
• Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
• The Wednesday Wars


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Unique and Delightful
Comment: An avid reader since childhood, I now use the fact that I have kids as a convenient excuse to read children's books. I saw this one at my boys' school library, was intrigued, and went out and bought a copy. I found the book to be a delightfully different experience. The combination of prose with pictures was a nice change and caused the pacing of the book to be more breathless and exciting. For example, why read a chase scene when, by turning pages, you can watch it instead? The story combines archetypal elements of adolescent fiction (a lonely orphan with prodigious gifts solving a mystery involving a reclusive old man) with ideas and images that struck me as fresh and new (the setting in a Paris train station, a curious automaton, and films from the dawn of their creation). The book was a page-turner that I devoured quickly and immediately recommended to my kids. Pick up this book for a refreshingly different and very enjoyable read.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Unique story!
Comment: I've spent the past couple of weeks reading this book to my 6- and 7-year-old boys at bedtime. What a magical story! All three of us enjoyed it immensely. Of special note: My 6-year-old has never enjoyed read-aloud time much at all (though my 7-year-old has enjoyed it since birth). This was the very first book that captivated him and had him begging me to read to him. I was really impressed. The book is quite long (although the majority of it is told in pictures) and I was sure he would lose interest along the way but he didn't! I really enjoyed the bit of historical fiction included about Georges Melies and it helped me appreciate the story that much more. I highly recommend this as a wonderful family book!

Customer Rating:
Summary: GOOD SUMMER READ FOR KIDS
Comment: THIS IS ONE OF THE BOOKS MY SON HAS TO READ FOR THE SUMMER. VERY INTERESTING STORY AND GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS!

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Must Read For Any Age
Comment: I bought this book after reading the suggestions of the previous book I finished. I thought it seemed magical and that it would be a good read. I was so right. I fell in love with this book after the first page. I read it from cover to cover in a day. Now, I am not a person who finishes books of this length in a super short time but, I just couldn't put it down. This book tugs at your heartstrings, showers you with excitement , action, adventure and a lot of heart. This is a book for any visionary or child at heart. You will not be able to put it down and you will be captivated by the artwork. Let me say this; I will never give this book away, the art is to magnificant and adds so much to this book. One of the reviews I read for this book said something like this,that I think is so very ture "It combins elements of a
picture book, part graphic novel and part slient film" I hope that you choose to go on a reading experience of a lifetime. Please give this unique gem a chance.

Customer Rating:
Summary: So much potential, so little delivered.
Comment: I'm a collector of children's books and the parent of avid readers, one of whom will read anything with science in it and the other who will read anything historical. I'm also a doll carver, and am fascinated with joints and mechanics; especially automata. When I read a review of this book it sounded wonderful, so I bought it on CD and we listened together. I am familiar with Brian Selznick's illustrations, and love them. The cover of the book is a good example of his inventive style. I hesitated to buy the cd for this reason but ended up glad I didn't have to be put off by the distractingly amateurish drawings. Indeed, when I watched the bonus DVD I found myself fixated on how the children's noses changed in every picture.

One sentence in, we all had a visceral reaction that prompted this conversation:
"Ewwww, who is reading this? Their voice is SO patronizing!"
"The author okayed this?"
"The author is the one reading this."
"Huh? What age is it written for?"
"9-12"
"He makes him sound a lot younger"

A short while later it was:
"The sound affects are distracting and affected. I don't like them".

I myself kind of liked them but my kids did not. They, BTW, were 13 and 17, but have always enjoyed books for all ages.

My 17 yo son dropped out 1/4 of the way through. My daughter and I finished the book for the sole reason that we wanted to know how it ended. It seemed to go on forever, and although the author suggested tantalizing possibilities of so many places it might go, it never followed any of these leads - instead it merely fizzled. George Melies in particular was portrayed in a way that was both vague and disturbing, as if Mr. Selznick thought he might have a mental illness, but wasn't sure which one, so he merely hinted at a number of them.

What was particularly disappointing to me was that I researched George Melies after we finished the book, and discovered he as a real person, who really made automata, and also that the automata described in the book is not only real, it is the most advanced example ever discovered. This automata is not made by George Melies (he destroyed his) but by a Swiss man named Maillardet. I became eager to find and see this piece for myself. I watched the bonus DVD that came with the cds in hopes Mr. Seznick would show it, and tell where it can be found now. Perhaps he even would include swoon) video of it? Nope. Just a dry description of how he came to write the book. Actually, here is where he somewhat redeems himself. Although this DVD is dry, it contains some valuable tips for young writers on how to research and plan a book. It is clear he did research and plan the book, quite well, in fact. So what happened - perhaps he planned so much that it killed the story?

One month after reading the book my family went on vacation to Philadelphia, and while visiting the Franklin Institute, we turned a corner and came face to face with THE automata from the book. I gasped. What serendipity! Along with the piece itself, there was a video that showed it in operation and examples of all 7 of it's poems and drawings. The best tidbits of the book - including many avenues Mr. Selznick never explored, turn out to be real parts of the story. Was he uncomfortable with telling the true story, so he made up one that was very much a lesser version? Did he feel the story required a boy? Fine, if so, but there are far better, less intrusive ways to write one in.

When we came home, I found videos about the automata AND Mr. Selznick on YouTube, and after that on Selznick's own website http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/about_hugo_auto.htm . Apparently the museum allowed him to thoroughly examine the automata. When they did so, the original writing instrument was found.

The three stars I give this book are not for the writing, but for introducing the world to the story of Melies and this automata. He also gets marks for describing his process in a useful, albeit boring, way. The basic story isn't terrible, even with the cheap trick of killing off the boy's parents - a pet peeve I have with children's books. Even with this flaw, the story was both meaty and juicy. So how did the final product end up being a pile of dry bones? The effect the illustrations had on me was to make the story even drier and dustier. Why on earth were shaded pencil sketches chosen to drive such a (potentially) exciting story? And if they were, why weren't they done in sketchbook style, as if done by Melies?

I suspect Mr. Selznick has no children, or is not very connected with them if he does. His character never reads like a 12 year old. He reads as much more childish - perhaps 9? but he supposedly was able to restore the world's most complicated automata with parts stolen from a toy shop? That disrespect for the *team* of *highly skilled* individuals who actually DID restore this machine, but took *4 years* to do so, really irked me.

Mr. Selznick wrote a long book with a potentially complex story, and the publisher set an age range ( 9-12) to fit that. However, the story is better suited to putting children of about 6 or 7 to sleep - and likely to nightmares, given that the only life in the book was relegated to dead parents, a drunk and missing uncle, homelessness, hunger, etc. I blame the editor of this piece as much as I blame Mr. Selznick for actually ruining a potentially first class book.

Mr. Selznick says he got his original inspiration from Edison's Eve by Gaby Woods. I have ordered that book and hope it delivers what this did not.

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server, using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.
| Children's Books | Children Education | Parenting |