I have been reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret to my son at bedtime. My goodness what a wonderful book (we're enjoying it so much I was compelled to write a review on Amazon -- my first ever.)

It is a beautifully illustrated story of a young French boy in the '30s who works to fix a broken automaton while uncovering the mystery of its creation. We learn about old silent films, magicians and the automata they used on stage. The book is over 500 pages long -- partly because some sequences of the book are told simply through the illustrations. Page after page of tightly drawn black and white images (similar to a silent film, eh? :)

Here's a passage from the chapters we read tonight:

Hugo thought about his father's description of the automation. "Did you ever notice that all machines are made for some reason?" he asked Isabelle. "They are built to make you laugh, like the (wind-up) mouse here, or to tell the time, like clocks, or to fill you with wonder, like the automaton. Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do."

Isabelle picked up the mouse, wound it again, and set it down.

"Maybe it's the same with people," Hugo continues. "If you lose your purpose... it's like you're broken."