If you haven't read The Invention of Hugo Cabret yet, you're in for a real treat. I HIGHLY recommend this as a family book to read. Granted we're only about 20% of the way through. But it's wonderful. I saw an interview with Brian Selznick (the author) and that spurned me on further to get my hands on the book:
This past weekend, Borders was kind enough to send out a 40% off coupon and I used it to purchase this book. We started reading it tonight and thus far, the kids LOVE it! Despite the fact that the book contains over 500 pages, we were able to plow through about 100 of them in roughly a half hour due to the large volume of pictures. But don't be deceived. The pictures are vitally important and if you skip over them, you WILL miss parts of the story because they actually TELL part of the story without words. As the old saying goes... "a picture is worth a thousand words"... so very true in this case!
Whereas Ethan has had a love for books from the time he was an infant, Evan is only just now, at nearly age 6, showing an interest in books. He likes Dr. Suess books and has recently fallen in love with an illustrated copy of Zathura. Otherwise, he has never enjoyed bedtime stories and typically will not join Ethan and me for that little ritual. However, due to all the illustrations in The Invention of Hugo Cabret, he sat with us the entire time and really got into the story. I used the illustrations as discussion points and we all talked about the plot of the story based on the pictures. Evan participated and gave his opinions, which is a big change for him!
I'll likely come back and write more when we are done with the book. But I do recommend it as good, family reading. Just be sure everyone gets a chance to see all the pictures. I don't really recommend it for kids younger than Evan (he'll be 6 in a couple of weeks) unless they really understand some advanced concepts.
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