The Invention of Hugo Cabret, By Brian Selznick

I am going to explain to you why cover design is important.

When I first saw this book in the library, it was displayed like so:

I saw it sitting on that shelf for, like, MONTHS. Never even picked it up. All those bright colors totally turned me off.

Then Miss Wendy moved it, put it on the shelf with the spine out.

I was on the book IMMEDIATELY upon seeing it. I was a little surprised when I turned it around and saw that eye-raping cover, but I decided to flip through it anyway.

I READ IT FOR 15 MINUTES. It sucks you in, with its drawings and its bare pages and its black borders. It backs that up with a pretty awesome story, too. OOOH about the drawings: seriously half this book is pictures. In 15 minutes I was on page 115. But they are beautiful pictures!!

What really piqued my interest was the automaton. It’s a little machine man that writes, and draws! Wendy told me it actually exists, and gave me the website, and it’s a little creepy, I’ll be honest, but once you see how it works you are blown away. I’m not going to try to explain it, but go here: http://www.fi.edu/learn/sci-tech/automaton/automaton.php?cts=instrumentation

Also of interest: integral to the story is one of the very first filmmakers: George Melies. Selznick included stills from his films and drawings that are either by Melies or are based on Melies’ work, I’m not sure. I’m not going into why he’s integral, because if I happen to forget what happens sometime in the distant future, I will totally enjoy reading this little book again.