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.
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
It has a lovely sound!!!
And the pictures are amazing!!!
Freaky and sad 🙁 But I would like to have a closer look at it
That does sound disturbing. I think I’ve seen this illustrator’s work elsewhere. I’ll have to Google her. Kate Bernheimer, if I remember correctly, edited the fairy tale anthology, My Mother Shed Kille Me, My Father He Ate Me.
This does sound sad but the pictures are gorgeous!
That’s too bad you didn’t like this more overall, but I am curious about reading this book at some point.
Maybe the writing is meant to be disjointed because of the way the girl thinks? I don’t know… But it does sound very sad. I love the illustrations!