“It all began with Isabella—brash, extravagant Isabella…” This account of Isabella Stewart Gardner and the collection she amassed, creating what is now the Gardner Museum in Boston, pairs an engaging narrative with clever, sometimes comical art and design. Gardner was an eccentric woman whose wealth and personality and privilege made her used to getting what she wanted, and when it came to art, she wanted a lot. Her tastes were broad and eclectic, and she had the resources to acquire whatever she desired by means both above-board and of questionable ethics (this was a time when many countries were beginning to put a halt to their art treasures going overseas). She put her treasurers on display in a mansion she had built as a museum, with her living space on the top floor, organizing the collection in a way that made sense to her, if few others. When she died in 1924, she bequeathed it to the public as long as nothing was rearranged. And nothing was, until thieves made off with some of the treasurers in 1990; they remain lost. An author’s note provides more on Gardner, the museum, and the unsolved theft in this picture book further enlivened by whimsical pen-and-ink and watercolor art and its dynamic design. (Ages 6-10)