The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum (2 page)

The castle is full of

music and grace.

There is even a tower, the girl’s favorite place.

Inside that tower she sits.

And inside that tower, at night she dreams.

What does she dream of, the girl in the castle inside the museum?

“Once upon a time,” her dream begins,

“a boy lived in a house inside the deep woods.

One day he walked down a path of toadstools

till he came to the museum and visited me.”

Once upon a time,” she dreams again,

“a girl lived in a town where the sun hardly shone.

One day she walked down a road lined with flowers

till she came to the

museum and visited me.”

Sometimes the girl

in the castle

even dreams about you.

The girl can be lonely when she wakes up.

But look! She has an idea.

She wants a picture of you for the wall—

to hang in the tower alongside her bed.

Then she won’t have to miss you at all.

Now in her room and in her dreams,

inside the castle inside the museum,

inside this book you hold in your hands,

you keep her company in a magical world.

Do you see her? She sees you.

Kate Bernheimer
is the author of two novels for adults, including The Complete Tales of Merry Gold, and the editor of two essay collections about fairy tales, including Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales. An assistant professor in the MFA program at the University of Alabama, she also edits Fairy Tale Review. Ms. Bernheimer lives in Tuscaloosa with her husband, their daughter, and their dog, Penelope. This is Kate Bernheimer’s first children’s book.

Nicoletta Ceccoli
is the illustrator of many acclaimed picture books published around the world. She was awarded the Silver Medal in 2006 by the Society of Illustrators in New York, and in 2001 she won the Andersen Prize, honoring her as the best children’s book illustrator in Italy.
Ms. Ceccoli has illustrated, among other titles, An Island in the Sun, written by Stella Blackstone; Horns and Wrinkles, written by Joseph Helgerson; and The Barefoot Book of Fairy Tales, written by Malachy Doyle. She lives in the town where she was born—San Marino, Italy.