A couple weeks ago someone introduced me to the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, a fascinating children's novel that uses beautiful evocative illustrations to advance the story line -- and which actually won the Caldecott Medal (an honor usually reserved for the best children's picture book rather than illustrated novels). Although it is 530 pages, it reads really fast since so much is detailed double-page illustrations; and when I started reading it I could not put it down. It was delightful! So I assigned it for homeschool reading for my daughter last week...
When she first looked at the book she visibly balked, but sulkily sat down in the armchair in the living room to do her reading time. Thirty minutes later I peeked in on her and she was still engrossed... and she finished it three days later in time for the opening of Hugo, the luminous film based on the book. So we started our Thanksgiving Wednesday celebration by going to see it together with my husband.
It's not too often that I can say that I like a movie as much as the book, especially since I liked The Invention of Hugo Cabret so very much! But it's true. As could be expected, there are some changes to the original novel, but most of the changes I thought helped develop the characters more and underscored the themes so it made the movie more unified; and it is worth seeing more than once (at least for me). My daughter is already talking about buying the DVD (it's on her wanna-buy list along with Courageous).
In the story, and especially in the movie version, there is a powerful theme that runs throughout, that Love is the Key -- beautifully symbolized by an actual heart-shaped key. Love is what makes the difference between feeling used vs. feeling safe, between isolation and connectedness, between surviving and living. It makes the difference between drudgery vs. fulfillment and purpose in work.
Another related theme that is integral to the plot is Purpose--
and that is what spoke most strongly to my heart in regards to my daughter. At one point Hugo is trying to encourage another character who is wondering what her purpose in life is. He takes her up to a breath-taking view of the city of Paris and says,
"Sometimes I come up here at night,
even when I'm not fixing the clocks,
just to look at the city. I like to
imagine that the world is one big
machine. You know, machines never
have any extra parts. They have the
exact number and type of parts they
need. So I figure if the entire world
is a big machine, I have to be here for
some reason too." (p.378)
No extra parts!
To me that also means -->No extra chromosomes! There is a reason, a purpose for each of us they way we are. My daughter's having 47 not just 46 chromosomes is by design, not a mistake. And as a Christian I know the Person behind the plan, the One who is in control and who is at work fulfilling His carefully crafted purpose in her life...
What the world sometimes looks at and calls broken or purposeless, God calls *His*Beloved*.
When she first looked at the book she visibly balked, but sulkily sat down in the armchair in the living room to do her reading time. Thirty minutes later I peeked in on her and she was still engrossed... and she finished it three days later in time for the opening of Hugo, the luminous film based on the book. So we started our Thanksgiving Wednesday celebration by going to see it together with my husband.
It's not too often that I can say that I like a movie as much as the book, especially since I liked The Invention of Hugo Cabret so very much! But it's true. As could be expected, there are some changes to the original novel, but most of the changes I thought helped develop the characters more and underscored the themes so it made the movie more unified; and it is worth seeing more than once (at least for me). My daughter is already talking about buying the DVD (it's on her wanna-buy list along with Courageous).
In the story, and especially in the movie version, there is a powerful theme that runs throughout, that Love is the Key -- beautifully symbolized by an actual heart-shaped key. Love is what makes the difference between feeling used vs. feeling safe, between isolation and connectedness, between surviving and living. It makes the difference between drudgery vs. fulfillment and purpose in work.
Another related theme that is integral to the plot is Purpose--
and that is what spoke most strongly to my heart in regards to my daughter. At one point Hugo is trying to encourage another character who is wondering what her purpose in life is. He takes her up to a breath-taking view of the city of Paris and says,
"Sometimes I come up here at night,
even when I'm not fixing the clocks,
just to look at the city. I like to
imagine that the world is one big
machine. You know, machines never
have any extra parts. They have the
exact number and type of parts they
need. So I figure if the entire world
is a big machine, I have to be here for
some reason too." (p.378)
No extra parts!
To me that also means -->No extra chromosomes! There is a reason, a purpose for each of us they way we are. My daughter's having 47 not just 46 chromosomes is by design, not a mistake. And as a Christian I know the Person behind the plan, the One who is in control and who is at work fulfilling His carefully crafted purpose in her life...
What the world sometimes looks at and calls broken or purposeless, God calls *His*Beloved*.
