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Ruthie Stewart
and Jack Tucker are best friends, in the sixth grade, and
attend a private school named Oakton, in Chicago. Their
teacher, Ms. Biddle, is taking her class on a field trip to
the Art Institute of Chicago. When the teacher finds the
class to have behaved appropriately, she announces that they
will be visiting the
Thorne Rooms, which are miniature rooms that look very
realistic. The class becomes very excited.
Ruthie is
instantly transfixed by the beautifully decorated rooms.
Jack's mom, who was acting as a chaperone for the field
trip, introduced Jack to Mr. Edmund Bell, a guard at the Art
Institute. Mr. Bell used to be a photographer, but when his
portfolio disappeared many years ago, containing all of his
best work, he stopped taking photographs and began working
as a guard at the museum. Mr. Bell shows Jack and Ruthie the
corridor behind the Thorne Rooms, where Jack finds a
mysteriously old -looking key on the floor. He stuffs it in
his pocket before anyone can take it away from him.
Jack shows
Ruthie the key while riding on the bus back to school. It is
very ornate and has the initials C and M on it. They decided
to visit the museum again the next day, Saturday, to visit
the Thorne Rooms again and try to figure out what the key is
for.
The next day,
at the Art Institute, they search around the room that the
Thorne Rooms are displayed in and cannot find a keyhole for
the key. Using Jack's library card to slide between the
corridor door and the door jam, he jimmied the door open and
both he and Ruthie sneak into the corridor behind the Thorne
Rooms. When Jack hands Ruthie the key to look at it, Ruthie,
and her clothes, shrink down to five-inches tall. After the
shock wears off, Jack lifts Ruthie up and places her on the
shelf that runs around the room so Ruthie can enter E-17,
her favorite room. Since people are out in the main room
looking into the Throne Rooms through the glass, Ruthie
finds it difficult to spend much time in the different
Thorne Rooms. They decide to return at night and spend the
night exploring the different miniature rooms without the
interference from patrons.
That night,
Ruthie begins exploring some of the other rooms, but finds
things in the rooms that don't belong there. They also
discover that if Jack hold Ruthie's hands when she takes the
key, they both shrink. While visiting a room, they learn
that they can exit the room through a door and step back in
history. They meet Sophie Lacombe in Paris, a French girl a
few years older than they are and they tell her about the
upcoming French Revolution. Then they find themselves being
hunted in early America by people thinking they are witches
during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. They also
discover that the past cannot enter the rooms, so when the
arrows that were shot at they fly in through a window, the
arrows disappear. They are safe in the Thorne Rooms.
They have
many questions about the Thorne Rooms. How does the key
work? How did the key become magical? Whose backpack is
hidden in the wardrobe? Why was a miniature number two
pencil left inside a desk? How come a small metal mug from
another room was locked away in a dark cabinet? How come
they can step back into history and interact with people? Do
they change history by talking with people of interfering
with historical events? They have a lot of questions and
very few answers.
The Sixty-Eight
Rooms
is a fictional magical book written by
Marianne Malone. This book is intended for readers ages 10 and
up.
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