The Sixty-Eight Rooms (The Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventures) [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Marianne Malone (Author), Greg Call (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: February 23, 2010 | Age Range: 8 and up | Series: The Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventures

Almost everybody who has grown up in Chicago knows about the Thorne Rooms. Housed in the Children’s Galleries of the Chicago Art Institute, they are a collection of 68 exquisitely crafted miniature rooms made in the 1930s by Mrs. James Ward Thorne. Each of the 68 rooms is designed in the style of a different historic period, and every detail is perfect, from the knobs on the doors to the candles in the candlesticks. Some might even say, the rooms are magic.

Imagine—what if you discovered a key that allowed you to shrink so that you were small enough to sneak inside and explore the rooms’ secrets? What if you discovered that others had done so before you? And that someone had left something important behind?

Fans of Chasing Vermeer, The Doll People, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler will be swept up in the magic of this exciting art adventure!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Sixth-graders Ruthie and her best friend, Jack, are on a class visit to Chicago’s Art Institute, where they see the famous Thorne Rooms. Filled with incredible miniatures, the rooms, representing different time periods, fascinate Ruthie. When she finds a key that shrinks her and allows her to get inside the rooms, Ruthie wants to return as soon as possible. Jack is a willing partner, and when a way is found to shrink him, too, the adventure really begins. First-time novelist Malone carefully crafts a fantastical story with plenty of real-world elements, including Jack’s mother’s worries as she tries to make a living as an artist and the subplot of a museum security guard, who has lost something important. Jack and Ruthie find it in the rooms, which tie the past and present together. There are contrivances that make accessibility to the adventures possible, but readers will focus on the mystery, the history, and the excitement of being small. Grades 4-6. --Ilene Cooper

About the Author

Marianne Malone is the cofounder of the Campus School Middle School for Girls in Urbana, Illinois. She and her husband divide their time between Urbana and Washington, D.C. This is her first novel.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (February 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375857109
• ASIN: B0052HLEKQ
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #586,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope there's a sequel... February 17, 2010

By S. Fishburn VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is *exactly* the kind of book I would have loved when I was in 3rd or 4th grade! Right now, I'm reading it aloud to a second-grader and he is totally caught up in the story.
Marianne Malone wraps up adventure, art, history, and mystery in a perfectly fun package. The Sixty-Eight Rooms addresses many types of friendship - that of Ruthie & Jack, that of Mr. Bell and Lydia, Ruthie's dad & Mrs. McVittie, Ruthie's mum and her mentor professor. It addresses adversity - Jack & his mum Lydia may have to leave a wonderfully concocted artist's loft if Lydia doesn't sell a few of her paintings to pay the rent. Loss is a theme - when Ruthie's mum's mentor/professor dies, and when we learn that Mr. Bell's best work (he's a photographer) disappeared years ago. And peripherally, who isn't fascinated with miniatures?
The children plan a winter weekend of exploration in the Thorne Rooms in the museum at the Art Institute in Chicago after it closes - their planning is thorough and creative; while they understand that what they are doing is not kosher, the lure of adventure is simply irresistible. I think the book is oh so realistic in all it conveys and portrays of the life and world of modern urban kids, which is a perfect counterpoint to the magic of the key, and the mystery of the exquisite, historically accurate, and totally real Thorne Rooms.

33 of 40 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars not badly written or conceived but greatly disappointing in execution February 9, 2010

By B. Capossere TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Marianne Malone's The Sixty-Eight Rooms is a YA fantasy novel with a great premise. The problem is she seems to have forgotten to put the fantasy in.

The book imagines two sixth-graders, Ruthie and Jack, who discover a magical key on a field trip to the Thorne Rooms in the Art Institute of Chicago, a famous collection of 68 miniature rooms set in various time periods. The key shrinks Ruthie and Jack down to a size where they can enter the rooms and explore. Even better, it turns out that beyond the room is the entire world of the room's setting: France just a few years before the French Revolution, Mass. during the Salem Witch Trials, etc. The book moves back and forth between Ruthie and Jack's adventures in these worlds, their attempts to sneak into the Art Institute in order to enter the rooms, and their quest in the real world to find out the mysteries behind the Thorne Rooms--who created them and how, where the key came from, how some objects from the Thorne Rooms appear to have entered the real world, and so on. Meanwhile, Jack's mother has some real-world issues of her own to deal with as she's having a hard time selling her artwork and the two of them (Jack and his mom) are in danger of being evicted.

As mentioned, the premise is simply wonderful, combining time travel and Borrowers-type "small-person" adventuring. The problem is, we see almost no adventuring in the worlds outside the Thorne Rooms. We only pop into two of the 68 and for a matter of only a few pages--in total the Thorne Room adventures add up to only about 10 percent of the book. There is a lot of time spent getting the key and getting into the Museum, figuring out the logistics of shrinking and moving among the rooms, tracking down the room's mysteries--all of which have their place but offer far less of a sense of wonder and adventure than adventures in a strange time and place do.
While the book moves along smoothly enough, and the characters are well-drawn and likable, in the end the book severely disappoints by setting up the promise of exciting adventures but not following through.

Malone leaves room for more at the end, so it's possible this was just a set-up novel to further adventures. If so, she would have been better served I think whetting our appetites a bit more fully with the possibilities. Not recommended as a stand-alone. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and hope she returns to the Thorne Rooms with another book more fully set there.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice concept but was very slow moving July 15, 2010

By LS

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I read this with my 10 year old 4th grader daughter. We got through about 2/3rds before I finally gave up making her read it with me. I think both boys are girls would feel the same about this book. For the most part kids that are very interested and have been to the Art Institute and seen the rooms or are very interested in doll houses might enjoy this book. For the rest it is probably too slow of a pace to keep most kids in the target age range interested.