The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Hugo Cabret is a small boy with many secrets. One of them is that after the disappearence of his uncle, he is left alone to wind the clocks of the great railway station in Paris. Another secret is that he is stealing clockwork toys from the toymaker's booth so that he can fix an automaton that his late father was working on before he died.

When Hugo is caught stealing the toys, his adventures begin. What will the automaton draw? Where is Hugo's uncle? Who is the toymaker?

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a nice book. It is really only about 100 pages long, if that. It is bulked out by drawings and photos that add to the plot and make it much more interesting. My only gripe was that as soon as you find out what the automaton is drawing, it no longer really has the same air of suspense. Also, I'm sure there's a few instances of really bad editing. Sometimes character elude to things that actually haven't happened. They were probably in a draft of the book, but some over-zealous editor chopped them out without checking the rest of the story first.

Rating: 3 out of 5