,by Brian Selznick,is a novel like no other.There are pages of exciting events and then suddenly,wait! A picture with tiny details,then a big picture that takes up the whole page-and the next page,and the next page,and the next!The pictures are actually telling the story.It's like a book and a movie all in one. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Selznick about his unique novel.I wanted to know just how he came up with the concept of writing a novel that reads like a picture book. "Because the book was so much about movies and the history of cinema,I also wanted to figure out how to make a book that was also like a movie," Selznick said. Writing and illustrating the book was a long and hard process,Selznick said.One of the challenges was figuring out what the story was really about and what happens to the main character,Hugo.Selznick also had to figure out how to make the narrative and the pictures work together to tell the story. Working with pictures was natural for Selznick.He has actually spent most of his career as an illustrator and really considers himself more of an artist than a writer. But sometimes figuring out what was going to happen in the story was not easy,he told me.He had no idea what the story was going to be about when he started writing.He didn't know if it was going to be sad,adventurous,or exciting.For now,Selznick doesn't plan on writing a sequel   to the book,but he warns,"You can never say never." What does Brian Selznick think of writing the novel?
Challenging. Timesaving. Adventurous. Foolish.