A new exhibit at the National Building Museum invites visitors young and old to get lost in the worlds created in children’s books — some fantastical, like in the adventure novel Phantom Tollbooth, and others a reflection of places in our own world, like “the great green room” in the bedtime classic Goodnight Moon.

“Many of the buildings and cities in children's books are not just backdrops, but are another character in the book,” said Cathy Frankel, deputy director for interpretive content at the Washington, DC, museum “Sometimes grounding, sometimes challenging, and usually inspiring the protagonist.”