"The Invention of Hugo Cabret" (pages 376-377)

Pencil on paper
4 x 6 inches

The Invention of Hugo Cabret was published in 2007. I'd originally envisioned it as a 98 page novella with one drawing per chapter but while working on the story I began to wonder if there was a way the drawings could inform the story in a way that felt more cinematic, since the book is about someone who made silent movies. I thought of the Wild Rumpus from Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, where there is no white space or text, just three spreads of full-bleed illustrations that move the narrative. forward. I also started to think about how film directors use the camera to tell their stories, with edits, close-ups, pans and tracking shots. I went back to my text, removed anything I thought I could show in the drawings, including descriptions, actions and emotions, and replaced them with picture sequences, until the book ended up being 534 pages.

Brian Selznick is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including The Invention of Hugo Cabret, winner of the Caldecott medal and the basis for the Oscar-winning movie Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese. His book Wonderstruck was made into a movie directed by Todd Haynes with a screenplay by Selznick, and he’s written and/or illustrated many other books including The Marvels, Kaleidoscope, and Big Tree, inspired by an idea from Steven Spielberg. His first Young Adult Novel, Run Away With Me, was published in April. He and his husband David Serlin collaborated on the beginning reader, Baby Monkey, Private Eye. They live in San Diego, California and Brooklyn, New York.

He can be found at brianselznick.com and @thebrianselznick on Instagram