Odd, sad and beautiful, The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer is not a book I would recommend reading, but the illustrations are gorgeous.

The story is about a tiny girl who lives in a miniature castle inside the museum. During the day children come to the museum and stare in at the castle hoping to see the girl, but when they leave she is lonely. The castle is a wonderful place, but she dreams of the people who could visit her. Finally, she decides that the reader should place of picture of themselves in her castle in the museum in the book and then she would never be lonely.

I know it’s a picture book, but it disturbs me a little. The girl is stuck in the castle and can never play with anyone else or talk to anyone else, she can only dream about other children. The writing is disjointed, it doesn’t flow well from one thought to another.

The illustrations by Nicoletta Ceccoli, however, bring the castle and the girl to life. They are simply magical and surreal.

The girl in the castle
Illustration by Nicoletta Ceccoli
This is not one I would add to my personal library, but if you pick it up from the library and your daughter does happen to fall in love with it, I imagine you’d have to purchase it so that you could put her picture in the little frame so the girl will never be lonely again.

Purchase from Amazon or an Indie bookstore.

2½ out of 5 stars

Category: Picture Book

Published February 28, 2008 by Schwartz & Wade, an imprint of Random House
40 pages

Book source: Library

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