The Sixty-Eight Rooms

Ruthie, sixth grader at a private school in Chicago, feels like her life is utterly boring. She longs to be one of those people to whom something special happens. When her best friend Jack finds a strange key on their visit to the Thorne Rooms at the Chicago Art Institute, Ruthie gets her wish. She gains the ability to shrink and explore the sixty-eight fantastically detailed miniature rooms, but finds more than she bargains for inside.

This book was a fun, quick read (probably I say that often, but most middle grade doesn't take long to get through). Ruthie was a very relatable character (despite my being about 16 years older than her) - she yearns for adventure and upon seeing the miniature rooms the first time, desperately wishes she show more could explore them. Not only was young Millie likely to feel the same way at her age, had I visited the Thorne Rooms, but as an adult I would still want to explore the tiny rooms! I would absolutely jump at the chance for some sort of magical adventure. Jack and Ruthie exploring the museum after hours reminded me of a book I read (and loved) in middle school, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and gave me a wonderful sense of nostalgia. Malone did an excellent job of describing the rooms and their different time periods, and I really did feel like I was part of the story.

My one real critique would be that I felt there was nothing really at stake. I thought their adventure might involve the pair taking more risks or facing real danger, and I was a little let down. But I still enjoyed the book and I will be purchasing the next three in the series!

Also the cover design is fabulous, as well as the decorative font selection and the key elements throughout the book. There are a handful of full page illustrations and those were alright - nothing mind-blowing, so I could take them or leave them. show less

This was a fun audio. While the book was not showered with glowing reviews, I really enjoyed the story, especially as it is great fantasy for 3-5 grades, which can be a hard age for good literature. Kids LOVE the Magic Treehouse books, and this is a perfect next step, blending mysterious magic and time travel (Magic Treehouse) with the special appeal of miniaturization (The Borrowers), and the secrets of a museum (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler). Even better: the miniatures and museum in question are real: the setting is the Thorne Rooms of the Art Institute of Chicago (http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/thorne).

One criticism of the book is that the main characters -- 6th grade best friends Jack and Ruthie -- do show more not act their age. While this may be true, that's part of what makes the book so appropriate for, say, 3rd graders. It also adds something of an old-fashioned vibe to the book. Jack and Ruthie discover a magic key that allows them to shrink down to miniature size so that they can go in the Thorne Rooms. The two friends contrive to spend the night in the museum, exploring the rooms, and examining the artifacts inside. They discover that the windows and doors -- and the realistically painted scenes outside -- are actually real, so they are able to visit French Revolution-era Paris and Salem Witch Trials-era Massachusetts. They also discover that they are not the first magically miniaturized visitors to the Thorne Rooms, and that previous visitors may have left behind important treasures. A fun, light read for younger readers that also explores historical time periods -- again, a next step for Magic Treehouse lovers. show less

This children's story mostly takes place in the Thorne Rooms of the Art Institute of Chicago, which are filled with tiny rooms packed with miniatures accurately representing different periods of history. Jack and Ruthie visit the Throne Rooms on a class field trip to the museum, and they find a mysterious key on the floor that has the ability to shrink Ruthie down to five inches tall. With Jack's help, she explores some of the rooms, but the kids decide to come back and spend the night, and this is when the adventures begin. Reminiscent of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", Ruthie and Jack struggle to figure out how to get in and how of the rooms when they are small, and they battle a giant cockroach as well. They also discover that they can show more enter the past through these rooms, and they visit late 17th century France and 16th century Puritan America.

Although I enjoyed the premise of the book, I had a hard time getting into the story. This book had all of the elements that should have made it a great read: museum, miniatures, magic, time travel, etc. However, there didn't actually seem to be much of a plot, other than explore the rooms and avoid getting caught. I thought that the parts where they visited the other time periods lacked purpose and unity, and they really could have been made into something much more than they were. I guess I wanted more of a mystery for them to solve, something that would justify their lying and sneaking into the museum after hours. Overall, it felt like something magical was always just around the next corner, but it never quite materialized. show less

The magic of miniatures and the love they can engender is well handled in this tribute to the Thorne Rooms. The action doesn't have a smooth or deft flow, it is a first novel. The plotting originally didn't work for me, I was hoping perhaps for more fantasy based story telling, but as it developed I was reconciled to its more mundane impact.

I wanted to like this a whole lot more that I did. I ended up just getting annoyed with the kids. What I really wanted, I guess, was From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg, only set in the Thorne Rooms of the Art Institute of Chicago (one of my Favorite Places on Earth.)

I got this book through the Amazon Vine program as an advanced reading copy. As such, it is missing the final drawings in the book so I can't address those. The description of this book reminded me of a book that I loved as a child "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler". It ended up being a very enjoyable book to read.

Ruthie and Jack are on a field trip to the Chicago Institute of Art where they get to see the Throne Rooms; 68 rooms built in miniature. They convince one of the guards to give them a tour of the corridor behind the rooms and while back there they find a silver key. The key causes Ruthie to shrink; her and Jack embark on a series of adventures in the miniature Throne Rooms as they try to unravel the show more mysteries of the rooms.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book. The setting is very cool. I did not know about the Throne rooms and now I really want to go to Chicago and see them! The descriptions are well done and the plot was engaging. Malone wove a lot of wisdom and life lessons into this story as well. The idea that the rooms lead to history is very cool too. Overall I enjoyed Malone's writing style and thought this was a very creative story. Ruthie and Jack are believable characters and Malone does a good job developing the side characters as well.

There were a couple things I had problems with. The dialogue between Ruthie and Jack is really awkward in the beginning of this book. As the book continued that was fixed, but it was like Malone needed some time to get used to the characters' personalities before she could get the dialogue smoothed out. I also thought that Malone took too long to get to the meat of the story; it took almost half of the book to get to the point where they shrink down and explore the rooms. I really wish Malone had got to the point where they explore the rooms quicker and then we could have read more about their exploring! I also wish we had gotten to see more rooms with Ruthie and Jack, they really only ended up exploring a handful of them.

Overall this was a good read, appropriate for all ages. I liked the writing style and the overall story. I wish that the beginning had been shortened up a bit so that we could have spent more time with Ruthie and Jack in the Throne Rooms. I get the feeling there may be a sequel in the making because there are a couple things at the end of the story that hint at adventures to come. If that it is the case, I will most likely check out Malone's next book too! show less

Ruthie is pretty sure that nothing interesting will ever happen to her until she and her best friend Jack discover a key in the hall behind the Thorne Rooms while on a field trip at Chicago's Art Institute. Even more interesting is the fact that the key shrinks Ruthie down to the perfect scale to enter these scale models and she discovers that the rooms are not merely carefully-crafted works of art, but gateways into the era they have been made to represent. Along with Jack, Ruthie decides that she has finally found adventure and now they plan to explore the rooms and learn as much as they can about the magic behind them.

This book is one of those strange examples of a novel [perhaps only in my collection] in which there is no show more antagonist. There is no great evil or nefarious force plotting the demise of these curious children. Rather, they are a pair of ye olde school kids, a level-headed and responsible girl with her best friend the vivacious and distractable boy, who happen to discover the key [accurately enough] to something they would never had imagined themselves. Though the main tension in the story is that of the children trying to learn the secrets of the rooms, there are external side-plots to build the characters and provide a wider base of reality. Jack's mother, the painter, is having a tough time and the possiblility of them having to move is an unpleasant distraction. Mr. Bell the charming photographer gone museum guard is a pleasant character with a sad past that befriends them in their initial excursions.

The book itself was pleasant and easy to read, but something captured me. This concept of a gallery of rooms, recreated in miniature. Part of it is because of the recent film Coraline, made in stop-motion minatures with an elaborate beauty that came from sheer accuracy and grace in depiction. Reading about Ruthie and these rooms hooked me in a moment, and when I learned that there may be a world beyond what the facade shows, my natural yearning for adventure and interest was piqued, much like Ruthie's. Malone describes the girl's interest, as well as the rooms, with natural ease--possibly from personal experience.

The most fabulous thing about the book, however, is not about the book at all. It is the fact that I learned the Thorne Rooms really exist! Fortunately for me, a broke Pennsylvanian, there is the internet and plenty of photos of these miraculous miniatures to peruse at my leisure. I hope you'll do the same. show less