The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A New Classic for Young Readers

This week marks the release of a beatiful new book for young readers (not to mention older "young" readers like myself) titled the Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick.

Hugo Cabret is an orphan living in the walls of a Paris train station in 1931. But that is not his only secret. He is desperate to repair a mechanical man -- an automaton -- that he believes can relay a message from his dead father.  Part novel, part picture book, and even part movie storyboard, deftly weaves Hugo's tale with the work of enigmatic cinema pioneer and magician, Georges Melies.

With its beautifully-told story and incredible illustrations, Selznick's story marks the arrival of a new classic. 

In this Borders interview, author Brian Selznick Discusses The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Part novel, part picture book, and even part movie storyboard, Brian Selznick's heartbreakingly beautiful masterpiece The Invention of Hugo Cabret celebrates the transformative power of books and movies. He tells the story of Hugo Cabret, a young orphan boy who lives secretly in the walls of a Paris train station, where he keeps the clocks running. His serendipitous 1931 encounter with the reclusive cinema pioneer and magician Georges Méliès changes his lonely world in mysterious and fantastical ways.

Borders: You have created a work that is at once a story about magic and the transformative power of cinema. In fact, your illustration style mirrors the early cinematic experience. Can you talk a bit about the evolution of your concept for this book?

Brian Selznick: When I started working on this story, all I knew was that it would be about the filmmaker Georges Méliès and a boy who meets him in Paris in 1931. Méliès is the director who made A Trip to the Moon, which is considered to be the first science-fiction movie ever. So I wanted my book to be a celebration of movies, but I also wanted it to be a celebration of books. There are several scenes that take place inside a bookstore and one important scene takes place in a library. This was important, but I also wanted the book that you the reader are holding in your hands to be a part of the story. I've thought a lot about what pictures can do in picture books and I wondered what would happen if I illustrated a long novel the way I would illustrate a picture book. This idea made sense to me for The Invention of Hugo Cabret because movies are so important to the story. I imagined that the picture sequences, which move the narrative forward, would be like little silent movies playing throughout the book. I also liked the idea that the reader gets to turn the pages to see the next picture, which in effect moves the story forward. What this technique ultimately does is to put the reader in control of the storytelling in a way not usually found in novels.

Borders: You're obviously a meticulous researcher. For The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins (which was awarded a Caldecott Honor), you spent time in England with Hawkins's dinosaurs. How did you research this book?

BS: Researching The Invention of Hugo Cabret was really fun because I traveled to Paris three times. I walked all over the city, especially the Montparnasse area where Méliès lived at the end of his life. I took photographs of everything I saw. I also read lots and lots of books including one called Edison's Eve by Gaby Wood, which is about the history of automata (automata are wind-up mechanical figures that could do all sorts of amazing things, like write or play chess or swing from a miniature trapeze). This is where I learned that Méliès once owned a collection of automata. I saw old French movies, talked to film scholars, discussed clocks with a clockmaker whose father opened a clock shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan many years ago, and I met a mechanical genius who has the ability to pretty much fix any antique machine he is given. This man's name is Andy Baron and he told me all about machines and tools and how Hugo would have fixed things. Andy is also a paper engineer and he worked with Paul Zelinsky on Knick Knack Paddywhack.

Borders: You often work with actual characters for your illustrations, or you've modeled characters from clay for a 3D perspective. How did you draw Hugo and Isabelle? And what medium did you use for the book? Did you spend time in Paris to capture the street scenes?

BS: I always have a picture in my mind of what a character looks like, and then I basically just look around until I find that person in real life. I first saw Hugo at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. He was in the audience at a puppet show I was performing, and afterwards I went up and introduced myself to him and his mom. The boy's name was Garrett, and he and his mom eventually came to my house so he could get into costume and pose for all the pictures of Hugo. I met Isabelle at a pizza shop near where I live in Brooklyn. I even had someone pose as Georges Méliès. Remy Charlip, who is a wonderful children's book illustrator (Fortunately, Thirteen, Arm in Arm) and a dancer and choreographer, was perfect for the part. The street scenes are based on the photographs I took when I was there, as well as scenes from French movies that were made in the 1930s. The drawings are all done with pencil, and are done very small, one quarter the size they appear in the book.

Borders: Throughout the book, it seems to be the magicians who embrace technologies (horology, animation of the automata, cinema). How were magicians perceived in European/French society in the 1930s? And what jobs do you think contemporary magicians would pursue in American society?

BS: Well, even though I love history, I am not a historian. I do know that magicians were among the very first people to understand the potential of the cinema and many early filmmakers began their careers as magicians. There's been a connection between clockmakers, magic, and cinema from the beginning. Isaac Asimov, the science-fiction writer, once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Who better to understand this phenomenon than magicians?

We'd like to hear your thoughts about this interview. Let us know what you think.

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