More Miniature Mischief

Fans of the children's chapter book The Sixty-Eight Rooms will be mighty excited about the sequel, which is due for release in late January, 2012. Once again, author Marianne Malone and illustrator Greg Call explore the magical mysteries of the Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Created by Mrs. James Ward Thorne in the 1930s, these miniature masterpieces are exact replicas of historical rooms in every minute detail.

Need a reminder?  I can do that.

Now, on with the sequel!

In Stealing Magic: a Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventure (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2012), Ruthie and Jack discover that someone else has apparently learned the Thorne Rooms' secrets and is stealing miniature treasures.  How can they stop the thief?  The magical key shrinks them, as we recall from the first book, but there is time travel involved in the sequel, and -- wait for it! -- the magical key has gone missing!  Stolen, too, I'm thinking.

Without the key, how will Ruthie and Jack recover the Thorne treasures, help their new friends (you meet a lot of interesting people when you travel through time to Paris in 1937 and to South Carolina before the Civil War), capture the thief, and return home?  Therein lies plenty of adventure, and readers ages 9-12 should be entralled.  Young adults, whom we used to call teenagers, should also find it engaging.  Adults, too, will find this a captivating read.  It is a worthy sequel to The Sixty-Eight Rooms.

Wish I Could Shrink to Explore the Thorne Rooms,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Young Readers News Beat

P.S.  If you'd like to see some of the Thorne Rooms in all their splendor, check out this video.  You may forget that everything is so tiny!  It all looks so regular, everyday size.