Reading Response 6: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I read this book a couple of weeks ago and I absolutely loved it. It is a five hundred page picture book, about a young child named Hugo. He is twelve years old and lives in a train station that he runs the clocks for. He is a scrappy, smart kid that adults are constantly chasing after. The reason behind all of this is because he is an orphan. His uncle, who originally lived in the train station and ran the clocks, was supposed to be taking care of Hugo when his father died, but he disappeared. To keep this a secret, so that he would not have to go to an orphanage, Hugo ran the clocks in the station and tried to avoid the Station Inspector as much as he could.

The old man, Georges Melies, soon catches him stealing toys from him. To pay off the toys that he stole, Georges makes Hugo work for the toy booth. Georges' granddaughter is named Isabelle and she tries to help Hugo out as much as she can. The two kids eventually make a huge discovery that Georges was a famous film maker/actor in the early film industry. He was phenomenal and had some of the best films in the early 1900s. 

Georges tried so hard to keep this in his past, but it is a great thing that Hugo and Isabelle helped bring to Georges attention that people admire him. Hugo and Isabelle brought this to his attention because Hugo had an automaton which was a prop from one of Georges' films that he was trying to fix. Of course, at the time, he did not know it was Georges' but he believed it would bring a message that his father left behind for him when he passed. 

Whenever he went to show Georges that he had the automaton, the Station Inspector caught him and locked him up. The Inspector was trying to get Hugo sent to an orphanage, when suddenly Georges came and said that Hugo was his child, so that Hugo could live with him. 

"No. The only thing I'll say is that I need to protect my husband. And the best way for me to do that is just to forget about all this..." - Georges Melies' wife

"You were the only bright spot in a very dark world. I made my wife promise she would never talk about my movies ago." - Georges Melies

I, myself, can not relate to this book in any way; however, I really enjoyed this book. It is a very unusual book filled with fantasy. Usually, I cannot get into a book, and I end up falling asleep while I'm reading it; however, that was no the case with this book. I read "Hugo" in one day, and I didn't put it down once. I definitely recommend it for everyone.

My Passion?

If you did not have to worry about money, what would you do with your time?

• If money were not an issue, I would travel all over the world. I would probably stay away from the cold places, but I would definitely go to every beach on the planet. Specific places on my list would be: Dubai, Jamaica, The Virgin Islands, Fiji, France, Belize, New York City, Hawaii, etc

What kind of work would you want to do?

• Well, if money weren't an issue, I wouldn't need to worry about working. I would spend my time traveling as if I were on an extremely long vacation. I guess my "work" would be photography, since I would be taking a ton of pictures. 

What cause would you serve?

• While I am traveling through all of these places I would help the homeless, and starving people all over the world. I would give them shelter, clothing, and food. Age, race, and gender would not play any role in whether or not I helped someone. I would help any and everyone that needed it. This is a never ending cause in the world, and I want to do everything I can to stop it.