Jack and Ruthie thought that their lives would go back to normal after all of the media attention the received for writing their school report on the Thorne rooms. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Ruthie starts having vivid dreams about the rooms. The first being a clue about the Bento box that they left in the Japanese room. When Ruthie goes back to find it, it's quickly apparent that someone else has been there first. There's a note written at the bottom of the note they left in the box, which could be dangerous, because Jack and Ruthie had their names on the note. Then things get weirder when they notice that some of the miniatures are disappearing from the rooms they belong in. Some of those rooms no longer seem to be "animated" which means you can't use those rooms to access the time periods of those rooms anymore. To top it all off, there's an art thief on the loose! Jack and Ruthie must figure out who's taking the artifacts from the Thorne rooms, and quickly, or the rooms might all end up losing their animation.
I really enjoyed reading this book! This is a really fun series, I love the idea of the Thorne rooms taking you to different places and time periods, it really quickens the imagination. It's kind of fun to think that the rooms that this book talks about are really in the Chicago Art Museum and you really could go see them. I like that I can read these books and enjoy them, even though they are written for a younger audience and our 12 year-old can read the same book and enjoy it too! I would recommend reading the first one The Sixty-Eight Rooms first, because this one talks a lot about what happened in that one. Labels: Marianne Malone, middle grade book
