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Mar 18, 2009

Abigail rated it:

I was distinctly underwhelmed by this first children's book offering from Kate Bernheimer, the editor of the journal Fairy Tale Review, as well as such collections as Mirror, Mirror on the Wall and Brothers and Beasts. I'm not sure what I was expecting - probably something more along the lines of an actual fairy-tale - but The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum didn't have enough of a narrative to retain my interest. Bernheimer's text reads like a string of random statements, rather than a coh More...

8 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2008

Becky rated it:

I give this five stars for its otherworldly illustrations. Anyone who noticed the great cover of "Horns and Wrinkles" will enjoy these pictures, "rendered in acrylic paint, clay models, photography, and digital media." This is way I love to see the computer being used for art: to polish technique, save time, and add layers, but to leave the execution mysterious, and not have the final result scream "I drew this in PhotoShop." This is the same reason I will always pr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 23, 2008

Carter rated it:

What a beautifully illustrated book. I didn't realize it until after I bought the book, but it's illustrated by the same woman who did the cover art for Horns and Wrinkles, Nicoletta Ceccoli. As soon as I read that part, I thought of course it's the same artist.

The story itself is about a girl that lives in a toy castle that is inside a museum. She dreams of the children who come to visit her castle in the museum, hoping to find the girl that lives in the castle. Perhaps you'r More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 13, 2011

karen rated it:

i first saw this book because of miriam's review, and then when ceridwen reviewed it, too, i just had to order it in to the store for me. and i totally agree with what ceridwen says about negative reviews being just as effective at helping another reader decide if a book is for them or not. i am pretty stubborn and self-motivated, when it comes to books, i like to make up my own mind. miriam didn't like it, ceridwen did, but i knew that cover art was calling to me, so i had to see it for myself. More...

35 comments like (35 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Ceridwen rated it:

This did not come highly recommended by my Goodreads friends, deemed too creepy and weird to be successful with most children. And they are not wrong in the abstract - this is a creepy book, and I do not recommend it to all. However, do you see that cover??? Omg, if the book has more of that kind of art, I said to myself, I am all over it. Creepy dolls ftw!!

Turns out, the book has more of that kind of art: miniature people with physics-bending hair, clockwork cities, a die with fairy More...

46 comments like (25 people liked it)

May 17, 2011

Natalie rated it:

Giving this four stars for my daughter who deemed it "cool" (that's a four in kidspeak) and confirmed it would make a fun gift book for girls 6+

Anyone who's ever stood as I did as a girl looking into Colleen Moore's scale Fairy Castle at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago has imagined the girl in the castle inside the museum and will be pleased to meet her! For kids who have never seen such a thing, this book is possibly the next best thing!

Take More...

0 comments like

Feb 27, 2011

Philip rated it:

*I moved my introduction to the end of the review, since it was a bit long and boring...

First of all, the illustrations. Obviously. They were simply haunting, beautiful, disturbing and altogether fantastic. Like the porcelain dolls at that bed 'n breakfast. You know the one, you're worried they'll come alive, but somehow you're hoping for it as well because they're sad and lonely and beautiful. ...I'm not talking about the creepy porcelain dolls. ... the ones that you're afraid More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 06, 2011

Leslie rated it:

Inside the Castle inside a Museum that is Inside the Story that is this book, which was inside the imagination of Kate Bernheimer and Nicoletta Ceccoli. Dreamers inside dreams who have dreams wherein the reader is brought to mind.
The story and its images would defy the dimensions of a page. Ceccoli plays with dimensions (some Escheresque details), media, and shadows, while Bernheimer acknowledges the reader in a theatrical violation of the fourth wall. The story resides in simultaneity, mul More...

0 comments like

Dec 13, 2008

Emilie rated it:

i really like the art work in this book. the dreamy girls with the big heads, big pale faces and intense eyes, the carny images and 19th century museum pieces.
its like a softer more dreamy then nightmarish style that makes me think a bit of mark ryden.
i like the world in this book.

the story i like but i dont like the last few lines/pages. they feel condescending,annoying, and a contrived feeling. the entire, put your picture in the book thing, yuck- cut this out! and the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 12, 2010

L.S. rated it:

The illustrations. The drawings of Nicoletta Ceccoli are amazing. "Delicate" and "tender" are good words for describing them. But I feel also a closeness to the drawings - this may be because of the way she draws the faces: big with un-realistic distance between the eyes & mouth (remember the licking pets?). If you want to see more of her work, try here: http://bit.ly/bDLyd9.

The book. The idea of the story is okay, the "dreams" that the girl inside the More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 13, 2010

Elfdart rated it:

i absolutely love the illustrations in this book. this artist is one of my preferred, her pictures are so soft and expressive, i just love it. and as if the illustrations themselves weren’t enough, the story isn’t that bad either. it’s very short and is about a girl inside a miniature castle in a museum (hence the title). someone tells us about the girl and then we get to see the girl up close and find out that she wants a friend. in the end she gets the reader to be her friend… in a way. its a More...

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Apr 29, 2008

GraceAnne rated it:

Lovely, odd. I couldn't decide if I found it mysterious, surreal, or just ... weird.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 25, 2008

Jill rated it:

This is a picture book unlike any book I've ever read. The premise is that there is a girl who lives in a castle inside a museum. The castle is encased in a glass globe, and when children come to the musem, they press their noses against the glass globe and get a glimpse of the girl in the castle. When the children leave at night, she gets lonely even though she is surrounded by beautiful things. At night she dreams of children her own size visiting her, and "sometimes the girl in the castl More...

0 comments like

May 25, 2011

Laura rated it:

If I were to give a review based on illustrations alone, then The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum would be five stars. Sadly though, the actual story is lacking.

The concept of The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum is brilliant. It's a story of a little doll that lives in a castle inside a display globe at the museum. She's very curious about the children who come to see her. She's also very lonely when they go home, and dreams about having friends. Again, it's a beautiful co More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 02, 2008

Lisa rated it:

This was a peculiar and rather creepy book. I do think some young children would enjoy this but I’d be cautious about introducing it to children who are very sensitive or who easily over empathize with others.

It’s a sad story that the gimmick of the child/children reader(s) putting their photo in the book toward the end (to be company for the lonely girl trapped in the castle inside the museum) doesn’t suffice to make it an consoling or uplifting experience, at least it wouldn’t hav More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 08, 2011

Cheryl in CC NV rated it:

Odd. Personally, I found it a little creepy. If I spent much time with it I'd probably have weird, unsettling dreams. That being said, an imaginative or morbid child would probably be thrilled to enter that lonely little world again and again. They might feel inspired to new rushes of creativity, or studying the book might feel cathartic to them. I am going to look at other works by the author and by the illustrator, Nicoletta Ceccoli.

0 comments like

Nov 08, 2011

Crazycatlady rated it:

I checked this book out of the library after seeing an example of the illustrations in one of my children's lit text books. The illustrations are beautiful and a little creepy. If it weren't for the thin story line and the contrived ending I'd have given this one five stars.

0 comments like

May 01, 2009

Megan rated it:

Gorgeous pictures and haunting narration. I think children will be either tickled or terrified when the story takes a "Never Ending Story" turn and the girl in the castle begins thinking specifically of the child reading the book.

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May 14, 2011

Miriam rated it:

A little arty, a little abstract, a little sad. I'm not sure to whom I would recommend this odd, brief little story of loneliness -- certainly not to children, it would be depressing and potentially upsetting.

I don't think everything distressing is necessarily inappropriate for children, but there are plenty of important real topics they should know about without inflicting this strange, artificial tale of a girl trapped alone in a model castle in a museum case upon them. When I was li More...

7 comments like (23 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2008

Deborah added it

I'd been eager to see this book for some time, because I loved the idea of it. Now that I've finally read it, I just can't decide what I think. It is enchanting, lovely, strange- all good things. The writing and illustrations are beautiful, but also sort of eerie, or creepy, take your pick. There is something about details like "real" hands being inserted (seamlessly) into digitally painted, blurred, ethereal bodies that I find both fascinating and a bit disturbing. I think this is abs More...

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Jul 05, 2011

Ryan rated it:

Very sweet - my daughter would have insisted on her picture being put in the book Right Now. Possibly a hair creepy, from an adult-who-reads-Gaiman perspective. The illustrations are lovely, but I can see them being scary in the dark.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Katie rated it:

The book is disturbing, but like I said about The Elephant Wish yesterday, its bizarre quality makes it possible for the book to convey emotions a more ordinary story might not be able to approach in quite the same way. I would definitely not recommend it to little ones prone to nightmares, or to really sensitive kids, because I found it quite troubling, and can only imagine how it might upset a four-year-old. But fans of the bizarre, the abstract, and the chilling will be drawn into its strange More...

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Sep 16, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

I would read this book just to pass the time and get my students to think a little. I did not see anything great with this book, except interesting illustrations.

0 comments like

May 08, 2008

Alia rated it:

The art here is lovely, so lovely that I had the urge to rip out the pages to hang them framed on my wall. And since there's really no substance to the text, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea. As much as I loved the illustrations, I think the story (about a lonely princess in a castle who dreams about children visiting her) was sort of boring and lacked kid appeal. The inside cover calls it an original fairy tale but the book lacks any of the traditional fairy tale elements aside from the f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 10, 2010

Agnes rated it:

Perfect book for a girl who loves castles and fairy tales. The images have a soft, haunting, dream-like quality. The ending pulls the reader into the story with a clever plot twist.

0 comments like

Aug 19, 2009

Christine rated it:

Children come to visit a little girl who lives all alone inside a castle that is housed inside of a museum. www.hcpl.net

0 comments like

Feb 15, 2009

David rated it:

The art work, and surreal narrative really impressed me. Wish this book was around when I was a kid!

0 comments like

Jun 11, 2011

Wendy rated it:

gorgeous book with the prettiest words and illustrations. night rain? streets? perfect.

0 comments like

Aug 15, 2009

Katie rated it:

Enchanting! Mostly LOVE the illustrations by a favorite artist, Nicoletta Ceccoli

0 comments like

Oct 20, 2011

Joy rated it:

Absolutely lovely, dreamy illustrations. Strange and rather disturbing story.

0 comments like