I listened to this book a while back, not knowing that it had so many illustrations that supplemented the story. The story stands on its own - the pictures make it even better. The author, Brian Selznick, is also the illustrator. The pencil (or charcoal?) drawings are quite realistic, with Selznick often 'zooming in' on what he feels is important.
The story is utterly fantastic and quite original, with enough based in reality that it is believable, too.
Hugo is an orphan, who is stuck tending he clocks in a train station after the disappearance of his drunk uncle. It shows his interactions with a toy maker who keeps shop in the station, and his god-daughter, and Hugo's driving need to fix an automaton that his father, an horologist who worked at a museum, was fixing at the time of his death.
So good.
General knowledge about the book now, but if you want to keep some things a surprise, stop reading now!
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Interspersed with his own drawings are screen shots from early films.
Hugo Cabret is almost historical fiction - I say almost, because only one of the characters is based in real life: Georges Méliès, an early French filmaker. Here is a video of his film, A Trip to the Moon. (I am sorry about the narration.)
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