Locked in the Museum
Leisa Stewart-Sharpe and Acapulco Studio
Templar Books

When Liam is accidentally left behind on a school trip readers, along with the boy, are taken behind the scenes of the Most Marvellous Museum as new rooms and artefacts mysteriously appear. There follows a surprising adventure visiting nine galleries and exploring more than one hundred artefacts from almost forty countries.

The fascinating items encountered in the Nature Gallery include an enormous African elephant that lets out a loud trumpeting sound and comes to life before you, as does a Japanese spider crab with a leg span just under four metres, and a giant squid.
In the Ancient Egyptian Room an Egyptologist introduces some mummies and moving on to the Art Gallery there’s Maman – a massive steel spider nine metre high (taller than a giraffe)

as well as some other wonderful works of art including a painting by Mary Cassatt and a ginormous world-famous masterpiece by Michelangelo. In the Transport Gallery travelling by air, sea and land are covered and it was great to see mention of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott and its outcome.

Exhibits from all over the world are gathered together in each section and each item’s real location is given at the end of the book in the Museum Credits spread. Ideal for encouraging children to visit them for real should they be in the appropriate place.
It’s good to read that many countries and museums now recognise that some items in their collections including human remains should be returned to their rightful owners and precious objects are gradually being returned to their original homes.

With several fold out spreads extending the number of objects available to view, there is an absolute wealth of fantastic exhibits to discover and linger over, and readers are also introduced to the conservators, palaeontologists and others who work in the museum.

A book to add to home and school collections.