Victor works at a Museum, and loves to take care of the art. One day, he is given a new painting. The painting is called Cousin Christanbel, and shows a beautiful lady sick on her bed with horrible cold. Victor wants so badly to warm Christanbel's hands and make her feel better. Over time, Victor falls in love with Christanbel and wishes he could help her even more. Christanbel was made into a picture by her awful cousin who put a spell on her! However, Victor and Christanbel's love breaks the spell and she comes to life again to be with Victor! ( )

Yet another wonderful book by Petra Mathers. I have to admit that some of the charm of her books is because she is a family friend and quite a few of her stories have taken place in the small town where I grew up. Her characters go to the places I went to as a child and they take part in a culture I am very familiar with. To me, Mathers is the master of the picture book and the standard by which I compare all other children's books to. I have since I was first introduced to her books with Maria Theresa. There is a magic in how she writes her stories with the illustrations and the details she puts into them is absolutely amazing. A child can read and re-read her books and still find something new to discover in the pictures. ( )

I'm not sure who the target audience is; abusive relationships and romantic love are not typical topics for children's picture books. Some of the details in the pictures are cute and clever. As noted on the verso of the title page, the painting in the story was inspired by Vittore Carpaccio's Saint Ursula's Dream (ca. 1495) in the Galleria Dell'Academia in Venice. The people in the book, drawn as animals for no reason that I can fathom, include a lonely museum guard who falls in love with the fellow alligator(?) in a painting newly donated to museum. SPOILER: The woman in the picture is the cousin of a magician, who invites himself to stay with her. Because she "always did as she was told" she cannot refuse his demands for food and shopping in "dark parts of town." Her attempt to end this abusive relationship is too late: her cousin finally is successful in doing a spell and she finds herself in a painting. ( )