A winning combination of words and illustrations ...

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‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ is a superb children’s book that Brian Selznick designed using a simple strategy: Illustrations wouldn’t be in service to the prose but would share equally in the narrative duties. A page of prose, then, gives way to an image on the next page that continues the sequence. Our children’s books reviewer, Sonja Bolle, called the book ‘cinematic’ in its approach to the life of an orphan living in a Paris train station.

This week, Selznick received the 2008 Randolph Caldecott Medal for what PW calls a ‘thick, genre-busting book.’ It is also significant to remember that, at a time when so many people say old-fashioned reading is being threatened by a culture increasingly dominated by the visual, a creator like Selznick has found a way of deploying words and images in a triumphant, vibrant way.

Nick Owchar