The book I've been reading this week is children's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. The movie was released here in New Zealand just this week and I'd promised my eldest that we'd get the book, read it and then I'd take her to see the film with a friend.
She'd gotten Brian Selznick's latest book, Wonderstruck for Christmas and loved it but Hugo hadn't been easily available. Now, just two weeks later with the movie out, the book is back in shops and YAY that it is. There is something so wonderful about a massive, hardback that is just so richly and lushly illustrated. It is like dipping into a magical world - which of course, we are.
I love the whole presentation of the book - the text pages as much as the illustrations. It is just gorgeous. And the story is a heart-melting one too. It has so many classic elements of a great children's story - the mystery, the orphan, the isolation and grief, the discovery of friends, the fear of being found out - and the magic world that he discovers. And it doesn't let you down - it's a wonderful story. I just loved it. So did my daughter.We went to the movie this afternoon - and loved that just as much although it does differ from the book (as movies tend to do). But it was such a treat to watch - I'd wondered HOW Martin Scorcese was going to get across the wordlessness - that sense of story-without-text which the book does so well - but he did - so much of that first part of the movie was ultra-visual (of course, given it was a movie, but you know what I mean??) but there seemed to be very little dialogue and yet so much expression was conveyed. Beautifully done. And it was so, so rich in terms of colour and the 3D element was magical. Both book and movie were fabulous :)
Sigh. I really want to go to Paris again.
1 comment:
I want to go to Paris too and I haven't even seen Hugo yet :)
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