Read The Sixty-Eight Rooms Online
Authors: Marianne Malone
The Sixty-Eight Rooms (27 page)
I AM QUITE SURE I
never would have written this book without the brilliant inspiration of Narcissa Niblack Thorne, whose rooms I have always loved. When the characters Ruthie and Jack popped into my head, I knew that only by devoting time and energy could I bring them to life, much as Mrs. Thorne committed herself to her extraordinary project. The example of creativity combined with perseverance lives in the rooms.
Also, I want to express gratitude to the Art Institute of Chicago, truly one of the finest museums in the world. It has been a welcoming and familiar constant for my entire life. Its thoughtful installation and beautiful accompanying catalog enable thousands to enjoy and be inspired by the Thorne Rooms. Bob Eskridge of the Education Department deserves special thanks for his warm reception of my story.
My husband, Jonathan; my daughters, Maya and Noni;
my sister Emilie Nichols; and my dear friend Anne Slichter were my first enthusiastic readers, and I am endlessly grateful for their encouragement. And my son, Henry, who mostly reads books on science, deserves thanks as well. Also, thanks go to several of my colleagues and students at Campus Middle School for Girls for their positive responses to the manuscript.
I am indebted to Gail Hochman, my agent extraordinaire, for taking on this first-time author. And to all the people at Random House, most of whom I don’t know—but mainly to Shana Corey, my terrific and talented editor—a huge thank-you for making this such a smooth and happy process.
MARIANNE MALONE
is an artist, a former art teacher, and the cofounder of the Campus Middle School for Girls in Urbana, Illinois. She is also the mother of three grown children. She and her husband divide their time between Urbana and Washington, D.C. This is her first novel.
GREG CALL
began his career in advertising before becoming a full-time illustrator. He works in various media, for clients in music, entertainment, and publishing. Greg lives with his wife and two children in northwestern Montana, where he sculpts, paints, illustrates, and (deadlines permitting) enjoys the great outdoors with his family.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2010 by Marianne Malone
Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Greg Call
Photography copyright © by The Art Institute of Chicago.
Mrs. James Ward Thorne, American, 1882–1966, E-24: French Salon of the Louis XVI Period, c. 1780, c. 1937, Miniature room, mixed media, Interior: 15 × 20 1/2 × 17 in., Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, 1941.1209, The Art Institute of Chicago.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Malone, Marianne.
The sixty-eight rooms / by Marianne Malone. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Ruthie thinks nothing exciting will ever happen to her until her sixth-grade class visits the Art Institute of Chicago, where she and her best friend Jack discover a magic key that shrinks them to the size of gerbils and allows them to explore the Thorne Rooms—the collection of sixty-eight miniature rooms from various time periods and places—and discover their secrets.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89324-7
1. Art Institute of Chicago—Juvenile fiction. [1. Art Institute of Chicago—Fiction.
2. Miniature rooms—Fiction. 3. School field trips—Fiction. 4. Size—Fiction.
5. Magic—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.F49569Si 2010
[Fic]—dc22
2008054556
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