The Sixty-Eight Rooms (The Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventures)

Gr 4-6 On a field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago, sixth-graders Jack and Ruthie discover a magical key that allows them to explore the Thorne Rooms, 68 intricate model rooms in the children's galleries. When Ruthie holds the key, she and anything she is touching, including Jack, shrink to the scale of the models. As they explore the rooms, they learn that they are not the first to discover the keythe daughter of a friendly museum guard was the last to learn the secret of the Thorne Rooms, and she left behind a notebook containing priceless family photographs. If Ruthie and Jack can find and return the notebook without giving up the secret of the rooms, they can change the museum guard's life. However, the rooms are not without their dangers. Ruthie and Jack can move beyond them to the different time periods and locations of each one and, in doing so, may be able to alter the course of history. This is a solid story, though it lacks the cachet that would make it stand out from other similar books. The descriptions of the rooms are faithful to the actual rooms in the museum. The pen-and-ink illustrations are of uneven quality and add little to the story. Recommend this book to fans of Blue Balliett's "Chasing Vermeer" (Scholastic, 2004) and other stories that incorporate a touch of fantasy into a cozy mystery."Misti Tidman, Boyd County Public Library, Ashland, KY" Copyright 2010 Media Source Inc.