Orphan, clock keeper, thief…

Hey kids!

Do I have a book for you to read during Easter break.

Don’t tell me you don’t have time to read.

In between swinging on trees in the woods, and maybe building a fort behind the house, and leading each other blind-folded through the ravine, I’m sure a rainy day will find you complaining there’s “nothing to do”.

We can read when you come inside, kids!

Here’s a magical, mystical, wonderful, fascinating, magnificent wild hullabaloo of a book in which to delve, to dive, to immerse yourself within its swiftly moving pages.  It’s mysteriously called “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.”

Don’t be alarmed that the book looks three inches thick.  Don’t turn away thinking it will take you until Memorial Day to finish.

No.

It’s a surprising book.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

You open to black pages.

Here’s how it starts:

A Brief Introduction

The story I am about to share with you takes place in 1931, under the roofs of Paris.  Here you will meet a boy named Hugo Cabret, who once, long ago, discovered a mysterious drawing that changed his life forever.

But before you turn the page, I want you to picture yourself sitting in the darkness, like the beginning of a movie.  On screen, the sun will soon rise, and you will find yourself zooming toward a train station in the middle of the city.  You will rush through the doors into a crowded lobby.  You will eventually spot a boy amid the crowd, and he will start to move through the train station.  Follow him, because this is Hugo Cabret.  His head is full of secrets, and he’s waiting for his story to begin.    –Professor H. Alcofrisbas

Meet Hugo

You will turn the black pages, flipping through page after page after page after page of black-and-white drawings, bringing us into the amazing world of Hugo Cabret.

I will tell you one more little secret.

He’s an orphan who lives in the walls of the train station.

Meet Isabelle

The author, Monsieur Brian Selznick (the Monsieur is his honorific title since it is a French story) leads us into the most magical of worlds.  It is so magical that the children’s book won a Caldecott Medal and is apparently–oh thank our lucky stars!–a “Major Motion Picture”.

(I just Googled it, oh yes, of course, how could I have not known?–the movie “Hugo”!  I suppose half the world already knows the story about this “Orphan, Clock Keeper and Thief.”  Sometime we kids who live in the woods with no television are a little behind the times because we spend too much time building tree forts and imagining our own wild & crazy stories.  I’m sure you’ve all sat hours devouring this delightful book already, and have watched the movie three times.  If that’s the case–please add your own book review in the comments.)

The book stretches 284 pages, but those of you who have not yet read it will watch the time pass quickly.  I read it yesterday in three hours, flipping eagerly through the pages, seeking the climax of the exciting chronicle.

Kids, it’s an excellent way to spend your rainy hours during spring break–I promise!

Words, glorious words!

After you’re finished, we’ll rent the movie, because, as we all know, books ought to be read before watching the movie.  It’s the proper order of the Universe.

Now get outside and play while it’s still nice…

P.S.  It’s a great book for grownups, too.  I promise!