Brian Selznick was a well-known children's book illustrator until he gained even more popularity when he won the Caldecott Medal for "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" in 2008.

Winning the Caldecott was rather controversial because the award is given for outstanding children’s book illustrations and “The Invention…” is a combination of novel, picture book and graphic novel.  It is a wonderfully imaginative story that uses words and illustrations to move the narrative along.  You will find several pages of text and then several pages of illustration that moves the plot along without words.  It is the story of a young orphan boy in turn of the century Paris who takes care of mechanical clocks in the main train station.  It gets exciting when he discovers an “automaton”, or mechanical man, and attempts to secretly fix it to see what it will do.  Though it is listed for kids 9-12, I think people of all ages will enjoy it - I certainly loved it.  To find out more about the book and the upcoming movie to be released later this year go to this link:

http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/about_hugo_intro.htm

 Brian Selznick’s latest book out is called “Wonderstruck”.  It is written in a similar text/illustration style except this time there are two plots going on simultaneously.  Ben’s story is written in text and takes place 50 years apart from Rose’s story which is told with illustrations.  Both characters are solving a mystery and by the end of the book their stories are intertwined in a surprising finish!  To find out more about “Wonderstruck” go to: http://www.wonderstruckthebook.com/

Look for all of Brian Selznick’s books at your public library!  Anyone else enjoy “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”?  I can’t wait to see the movie!