A young boy lives alone in a secret room in a French railway station. He creeps around oiling and maintaining the many clocks, just as his uncle taught him to do. However, his passion is the gradual repair of a wonderful automaton or mechanical robot. He hopes when it finally works that it will write a message from his father. Intrigued already? There is no magic or fantasy in this chunky book, but it is full of fantastical ideas and the reader becomes very involved in the lives of a family that this boy meets, a family with its own secrets.
The story progresses in two ways. Some of it is told in a clear narrative form, but many pages consist entirely of drawings. It is neither an illustrated novel nor a graphical novel, rather moves in and out of the different genres. The illustrations are wonderful!
While we stay mostly engaged with the story of Hugo and his search for a message from his father, the author weaves in the story of Georges Méliès, a ground breaking French filmmaker. This is a very different reading experience, and would suite middle school and up. While there is a positive ending, Hugo experiences many disappointments, challenges and betrayals along the way.
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