Hugo Cabret is alone. He lost his dad in fire and was given to his uncle's care, but his uncle has been gone for months leaving Hugo by himself. Well, him and the clocks he winds every day at the Paris Train Station. No one knows he's there and he is scared of being taken to an orphanage or being put in the Stations Inspector's "cage" so he stays quiet, taking his uncles paychecks but not cashing them, and steals to survive. He recently rediscovered an automaton that his father found and keeps close to his heart the notebook his father left behind. But after getting caught stealing a small mechanical mouse from a toyshop in the station, the notebook gets taken away from him by the shop owner and the struggle to get it back ensues. However, there seems to be something strange about this old toyshop owner, there is far more that he is not telling Hugo as to why he took Hugo's father's notebook in the first place. The shop owner's goddaughter and Hugo join forces to find the notebook and its significance.
I think the thing I loved most about this book was the fact that my son was able to read it to me. He struggles in reading and the pictures that were drawn and old photos of movies helped make this come alive for my son. It intrigued him and didn't make him feel like "it's too hard." The words were more difficult than things he's accustomed too, I was going for a challenge, and far larger of a book than I'd ever read on his own. But he did it and enjoyed the story.
The second thing were the pictures. It brought life and vivation to the story along with clarity to the reader who's never seen any of the old movies before. We were able to see the "man in the moon with a rocket in his eye" and the fairy lands that were made in the old films because the still frame pictures were there. There were cartoon-ish drawing of Hugo and Isabelle, Georges and people of the station which brought the story to live as well.
I think this is a good book to start kids out on when talking about historical fiction. There are many parts in history that could be talked about, but movies and shows are obviously topics that kids can get very passionate about--as my son shows me on many occasions--and this story gives a fictional account of the beginnings of moving pictures. It was fun to talk with him about one of the first films, "A Train Pulling Into A Station" and how it scared people in the audience because they thought the train was going to run them over. We talked about other inventions and how things were so different and how far they've come. It's opened up avenues of older movies that he's never seen before, but where important when it comes to making movies.
It also is a good starting point for introductions to Steampunk books that are out there. It opens up a mechanical world with automatons and that fact that clocks had to be wound often to keep them running. Steampunk and that alternate reality is a fun one, in my opinion, to dive into. (A good series I'd recommend is The Rythmatist and Misborn Era 2 starting with Alloy of Law all by Brandon Sanderson. They are the only steampunk books I've been able to really get into as of yet, but there are many on the TBR list.)
It was much more of an adventure story or mystery that I thought it would be. Not much in the way of character development happened to the main character or Isabelle, but for "Papa Georges" he grew a little. He softened over the course of the story and was able to confront hard things in the past that had happened. I don't entirely know how much of it was "based on true events" and how much of the story was creative liberties by the author though.
We both enjoyed the book and we'll be watching the movie soon, which I'm excited to show my son.
