The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Selznick, B. (2007). The invention of Hugo Cabret. New York: Scholastic.

This book is about 600 pages long with about half of those pages being artwork.  The artwork is very important in this story since it connects the written pages together.  The story begins with Hugo being taken in by his uncle and learns how to keep the clocks in the train station, in Paris, working. His uncle passes away and now Hugo must continue his work, but he also wants to fix the automaton his dad was working on before the fire. Will Hugo get it to work?  Why does the old man at the toy store want his notebook?


Lesson Plans for The Invention Hugo Cabret:

Since this book contains many pictures and won the Caldecott Medal, this would be a great way to introduce the award to the students.  Pull other books that have also won the Caldecott and go over why they think these books have won the award.  Have them choose a picture from one of the books to look at and draw.  Make sure they include the title of the book and the illustrator on their work.  Create a bulletin board of favorite illustrations and hang up their drawings.
More lesson plans at: http://librarysparks.com/pdf/librarysparks/2008/lsp_nov08_LL_hugo_cabret.pdf 

(4)  Response/evaluation. The student makes informed judgments about personal artworks and the artworks of others. The student is expected to:

(A)  identify general intent and expressive qualities in personal artworks; and

(B)  apply simple criteria to identify main ideas in original artworks, portfolios, and exhibitions by peers and major artists.