Katherine and I went to see Hugo, the film adaptation of the wonderful children’s book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” which I adore. (The movie is delightful – go see it.)<\/p>\n
The book is really unusual. It’s a combination of text and graphic novel, so you read for a couple of pages, and then there are pictures (really beautifully drawn pictures) in graphic-novel style panels, telling the story for a few more pages, and then back to text again.<\/p>\n
It’s really very effective, even as an adult reader. And I do think it’s an awful shame that books for older kids don’t have more pictures. Once you enter the world of “chapter books,” the pictures literally fall off the page. I used to tell parents of the middle schoolers all the time, not to worry if their kid was more interested in reading magazines or graphic novels instead of “real books,” simply because these fill that gap between the world of picture-rich children’s literature and the picture void in adult literature.<\/p>\n
And of course I’m a huge fan of the early film world. I LOVE Trip to the Moon.
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