The Goldfish in the Chandelier

Casie Kesterson 
Illustrations by Gary Hovland

A different kind of adventure story, The Goldfish in the Chandelier takes place just outside Paris in the early 1800s. Uncle Henri is stuck. He has been commissioned to design a chandelier for a great house in Paris, but he can't figure out what form it should take. His young nephew, Louis Alexandre, comes to the rescue with some dazzling ideas—inspired by Alexander the Great and the first hot-air balloon flights over Paris—that surprise them both. Together, they use a lot of imagination to create something that never existed before—something new, unexpected, and very beautiful.

This delightful story was inspired by the Gérard-Jean Galle chandelier, one of the most popular pieces in the J. Paul Getty Museum's impressive collection of French decorative arts.

Ages seven to ten.

Formerly on staff at the Getty Research Institute, Casie Kesterson currently is a consultant specializing in matters relating to the history of collecting. Gary Hovland's illustrations have appeared in such nationally and internationally known publications as the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. His illustrations for If the Walls Could Talk: Family Life at the White House (Simon & Schuster, 2004) won a Toy Portfolio Platinum Book Award in 2005.

“The whimsical pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings enhance the time period.”
—School Library Journal