The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick
2007

Hugo Cabret lives alone in a secret apartment in the Paris train station, keeping the clocks running while his uncle, the drunk/the station's clock maintainer, is missing. Hugo has inherited his family's fascination with machines and spends his free time trying to reconstruct an automaton, hoping to discover a secret message. His plans are complicated after he is caught shoplifting by a toy salesman at the station. Hugo soon finds himself in a web of more secrets, surprisingly connected to his own secrets.

This is a fat, dense novel, but the page layouts are well done, with lots of white space helping the story breathe. The illustrations are two page spreads, quite different from a paneled graphic novel/comic look. Several sequences suggest motion effectively and help pull the reader through the book. This is a book that needs to be seen to be appreciated, but I imagine that most kid readers seeing this book would be interested enough to make a go of it.

Rainstorm
by Barbara Lehman

This wordless book finds a lonely rich kid inside his fancy rich kid house. It's raining outside and he's sad, proving that being rich doesn't outweigh the weather. How do I know he's rich? He's wearing a tie and shorts around the house. And the suit of armor by the stairs.

Anyway, the rich kid finds a mysterious key which opens a trunk, which leads to another location. Where there are kids to befriend the rich kid.

Good wordless storytelling and nice pictures. Even kids who are not rich would probably like this book.