Marianne Malone

An adventure inspired by the Thorne Rooms, an exhibition of 68 exquisitely crafted miniature rooms in the Children's Galleries of the Chicago Art Institute, envisions a magical key that enables people to shrink to a small enough size to visit the rooms directly and discover hidden secrets and the mysterious activities of previous visitors.

The Sixty-Eight Rooms

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!

In the Art Institute of Chicago's miniature Thorne Rooms, the Thorne Rooms key and a mysterious set of rings lead Ruthie and Jack to new historical eras and a woman who went missing as a young girl.

Marianne Malone

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