Book Report on "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Ammon

I just read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. This book was...I can't explain it. It was awesome. It was the best book I've read in months.

It starts out with a kid, Hugo. His father finds a mechanical man called an automaton. And then one night when he was in a museum fixing the automaton, the guard accidentally locked the doors and a fire started. Everything was burned up and Hugo was left with his uncle. When the uncle went to buy food and drinks, he went to the store and never came back. Hugo did his uncle's job for him and tried to fix the automaton himself.

Hugo gets caught stealing parts from an old man's toy shop. Hugo has to work for a few weeks to pay him back. Later he learns that the old man was the one who built the automaton. He is the long-lost great movie maker, Georges Melies. Hugo helps him remember who he is and the old man starts making movies again.

The coolest thing about this book is that there are more pictures than words. The pictures tell part of the story and then the words take over to help tell the story.

In the end, Georges Melies takes Hugo as his son, and Hugo becomes a magician. And the mechanical man does something very special at the end of the book. Here's two clues: 1) one hundred and fifty-eight and 2) twenty-six thousand one hundred and fifty-nine. You'll have to read the book to find out what it is.

You can buy this book at Borders for $22.99. The library has a copy, too, but you'll want to buy it so you can read it over and over again and see the cool pictures.