The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick won the Caldecott Medal in 2008. As I'm sure most of you are aware, the Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children. It's akin to receiving the Newbery Award for children's books, or the Printz Award for young adult.
Hugo Cabret was an especially interesting win for the Caldecott, because although it does contain a lot of beautiful illustrations (284 in a 533 pg. book) it's a 533 page novel. The front jacket describes this as a book "combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film" which "breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience."
The dust jacket does not lie. Reading this book was unlike anything else I've ever read and it was wonderful. I was hooked from the first page, "A Brief Introduction by Professor H. Alcofrisbas" to the last page as we visually watch the moon as it disappears from the sky. The illustrations are... beyond brilliant. Designed to look like sketches, they are surprisingly complex and deceptively simple. As I mentioned in my review of American Born Chinese I am increasingly shocked by what you can portray and how much story you can tell with just one picture.
The story itself was wonderful. Hugo Cabret is a wonderful character just trying to find his place in life. He is a young boy living alone in the middle of Paris in the 1930s, trying desperately to survive. He has no money, but he feels bad every time he is forced to steal something to survive. He is such a good character. He is so confused and desperately searching for something tangible to bring him hope. I loved the secondary characters as well. Questioning and spunky Isabelle, hurting and bitter old Georges, and loving and protective Jeanne. Each of the characters are incredibly well developed. Even the minor characters are given more depth than we normally see.
This book was marvelous. It's definitely one that I am going to want on my own shelf sometime soon. It's beautifully illustrated and wonderfully written. This is a book that can be enjoyed by people of any age, at any stage of their life. I'm enjoyed reading this one so much, that I am definitely looking forward to seeing what else Mr. Selznick has to offer the literary world.