I'm guessing that if you haven't read The Invention of Hugo Cabret then you've at least seen the film Hugo starring Asa Butterfield and Chloë Grace Moretz. The movie adaptation is actually very faithful to the book. If you're unfamiliar, it's about a boy that is living in a train station in Paris and trying to put together a clockwork man. In order to do so, he has to stoop to thievery, sneaking, and subterfuge. But it's not simply the storyline that sets Selznick apart from the pack. It's his use of illustrations and words that make reading his books so enjoyable. There are full-page spreads with no text whatsoever that are absolutely breathtaking. Generally, his illustrations are done in pencil and without color. They're gorgeous and I love them.Themes explored include but are not limited to: loss and redemption, solace in the written word, trust of children over adults, and orphaned children. Out of the three I'm reviewing today this one was my least favorite but that might have been because I already knew the story from seeing the film...or that he was still experimenting with his style with this earlier work. However, I'd still rate it a 9/10. 

Yeah, yeah. Totally didn't notice that today was perfect for The Invention of Hugo Cabret until I'd already used it. In my defense, I still don't have another beautiful spine on a book. George Méliès and the Lumière brothers were contemporaries and they all left their marks on film history.

But Movies in Fifteen Minutes holds a very special place in my heart. It's not technically literature but I have never laughed so hard with friends as when we'd take turns reading some of these out loud. The author has a way of taking all those vague reference you thought about and then immediately forgot and mixing them up tongue-in-cheek text that points out the hilarity and plot holes in a few well known movies.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Sorcerer's Philosopher's Stone:

 

Hagrid: We're off to Diagon Alley now!

Harry: How do you get there?

Hagrid: Well, you'd think that, often as I go there, I'd know exactly where to do, but...boozing takes its toll, you know. Maybe it's in this here coat closet -

Some Faun: OI! YOU PEOPLE AGAIN?

Hargrid: Crap, that's how you get to Narnia. Wait, I remember!

[Hagrid goes to a brick wall out behind the tavern and starts tapping at the bricks with his umbrella. They rearrange themselves into an opening and -]

Some young brunette: Do you know the way to the Goblin King's castle?

Some Caterpillar [in the distance]: I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO THAT WAY!

Hagrid [closing bricks]: Let's try that again, shall we?

The Lord of the Rings (All three and probably a bit more than fifteen minutes):

 

Bilbo: And then the trolls couldn't decide whether to boil us alive seasoned only by our own screams or to break our bones and suck the gory marrow! And then they said, "Hey, lets do both!" So they stuffed us in a sack with rabid zombie badgers, who started chewing on Bofur's head, and -

Kids: *run away screaming*

 

[Gandalf does his part to terrify the children with exploding butterflies and, later, a jig.]

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If you are interested in film history, I've enjoyed The Story of Film: An Odyssey, a documentary series on Netflix right now. The narrator is not my favorite but the information is amazing.

Sadly, the books I read don't seem to have interesting spines. I love making the spines beautiful, particularly when a series has spines that create a picture when shelved together.

But this book does have one of Selznick's gorgeous illustrations looking right at you, as if telling you this book has to be read.

BEST PICTURE BOOK FOR OLDER READERS

This gorgeous book is proof that picture books aren't just for kids.

The book's author, Brian Selznick describes it as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things."

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. 

For me, the two books that pair words and pictures together the best are The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Maus. Hugo Cabret was mind blowing; seeing how seamlessly the artist melded the artwork, pictures, and text together. It comes as close as I've ever seen to being a movie you can hold in your hands. 

Maus is...a difficult read but one you really should try. The author/illustrator inserts himself in the story as he illustrates his parent's life during the Nazi's rule. With the Jews portrayed as mice, Nazis as cats, etc. the elements have a visceral element that can still be read without the illustrations becoming too much. Even then, there are very difficult points in the story but it's one that needs to be read.