read this book

As many of you know, I love to read and books are a very important part our lives here in our house. But, with all that we read, I rarely, if ever, feel compelled to jump up and shout from the roof tops my love for any one book.

That is... until now. I have a new love, a new obsession.... a new book to add to my very small collection of books that I would (and will) read over and over.

That book is...
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Here's how this book came into our lives this weekend....

Saturday we all went to the library to return some overdue books. The last time we were in, I had noticed a flier about a book club for grades 3-5. I asked the children's librarian about it and she pointed me towards the fliers and told me that copies of the book were available behind the check-out desk. I was interested in this because Alex has become a voracious reader lately. Well... for me he has anyway. I would say he reads about 3-5 chapter books a week (on his own, outside of school)... so I am having a hard time keeping him in books (right now he's pretty caught up in the Spiderwick books and the Hardy Boys though).

Anyway, I thought a book club might be fun for him and would help introduce us to books we might otherwise skip over. He thought it sounded cool, so we asked for the book.

Wow... it was overwhelming when she plunked it down on the counter.... 544 pages!!!!!!!! We checked it out and brought it home.

I decided to look through it first. The bulk of the book is made up of fabulous black and white illustrations.... mimicking the footage of an old black and white silent movie. I was completely drawn in and I couldn't put it down. You are immediately caught up in the story and race through to see what happens next in either picture or text.

The story is so moving and magical that I was nearly in tears at different parts. One part in particular chokes me up ever time I read it (page 378 if you have the book... the part where Hugo talks about thinking of the world as one big machine). Ugh... I've got a lump in my throat right now just thinking about it!

I read the entire book in one sitting... and when it was over, I wanted to start right back over again. Which was odd to me. With most books I really enjoy, I don't want it to end, I want to know what else happens. But with this one, I was mostly okay with it being over.... but I wanted to start it again so I could absorb even more of this story.

I'm not going to tell you really what it's about (you can read that from the amazon link above) because I hesistate to tell too much, afraid that I would take something away from the discoveries to be made as you read it for yourself. Let's just say that it involves... Paris, train stations, clockworks, chase scenes... oh... just read it! :-)

After how strongly I felt about it, I wondered what Alex would think of it. Well... he stayed up until nearly midnight so he could finish the book in one night. He was completely captivated by it as well. He enjoyed the main character, Hugo Cabret, and his life of gears and automatons.

Okay... after all of that rambling, I have nothing else to say but go get the book.... either for yourself or for a child in your life... I don't think you'll regret it! :-)