Just read: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I am grateful for Alec who never steers me wrong in his book recommendations (among other things). His latest suggestion is stellar: Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret. This book won the 2008 Caldecott Award.
In trying to find words to describe it, I stumbled upon this description on the book's website: "This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things." Indeed, it's hard to know exactly what to call this book other than remarkable.
In doing some more reading about this book on the website, I was captivated by an essay by Remy Charlip called "A Page is a Door." Here, Charlip notes, "A book is a series of pages held together at one edge, and these pages can be moved on their hinges like a swinging door...Of course if a door has something completely different behind it, it is much more exciting. The element of delight and surprise is helped by the physical power we feel in our own hands when we move that page or door to reveal a change in everything that has gone before, in time, place, or character. A thrilling picture book not only makes beautiful single images or sequential images, but also allows us to become aware of a book’s unique physical structure, by bringing our attention, once again, to that momentous moment: the turning of the page."
These pages are a door you're going to want to open.