The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)

This "novel in words and pictures" tells the charming story of a young boy living in the walls of a train station in Paris who gives up everything for his dreams. He tends to all the stations clocks, as his uncle taught him to do before he disappeared, and works to repair an automaton his father left to him. Along the way he meets people who alternately help and thwart him. The book is an adventure and a series of beautifully drawn images, but mostly it is a testament to the thrill and magic of movies.