The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, 2007

Hugo Cabret lives alone among the rafters of a Paris train station. It’s 1931, and he winds the clocks, steals food to live, and tries to repair a strange machine that his father had discovered in the attic of a museum before he died. But Hugo needs parts, which he can only get by stealing wind-up toys from a strange toymaker who runs a shop in the train station. A wonderfully inventive story, mixing fiction and film history, rendered in an unusual mix of hundreds of moving black and white illustrations, with snippets of text throughout. Rewarding on many levels, and strongly recommended.