The Sixty-Eight Rooms


Book Description

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!




Stealing Magic: A Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventure


Book Description

Ruthie and Jack thought that their adventures in the Thorne Rooms were over . . . until miniatures from the rooms start to disappear. Is it the work of the art thief who's on the loose in Chicago? Or has someone else discovered the secret of the Thorne Rooms' magic? Ruthie and Jack's quest to stop the thief takes them from modern day Chicago to 1937 Paris to antebellum South Carolina. But as more items disappear, including the key that allows them to shrink and access the past worlds, what was once just an adventure becomes a life and death race against the clock. Can Ruthie and Jack catch the thief and help the friends they meet on the way before the magic—and the rooms—are destroyed forever? Fans of magic, mystery, and adventure will love this rollicking sequel to Marianne Malone's The Sixty-Eight Rooms.




The Calder Game


Book Description

This new mystery from bestselling author Blue Balliett is now available in After Words paperback!When Calder Pillay travels with his father to a remote village in England, he finds a mix of mazes and mystery . . . including an unexpected Alexander Calder sculpture in the town square. Calder is strangely drawn to the sculpture, while other people have less-than-friendly feelings towards it. Both the boy and the sculpture seem to be out of place . . . and then, on the same night, they disappear! Calder's friends Petra and Tommy must fly out to help his father find him. But this mystery has more twists and turns than a Calder mobile . . . with more at stake than first meets the eye.




The Secret of the Key


Book Description

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




The Wright 3


Book Description

From the New York Times-bestselling team behind Chasing Vermeer comes another thought-provoking art mystery featuring Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie house--now in After Words paperback! Spring semester at the Lab School in Hyde Park finds Petra and Calder drawn into another mystery when unexplainable accidents and ghostly happenings throw a spotlight on Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and it's up to the two junior sleuths to piece together the clues. Stir in the return of Calder's friend Tommy (which creates a tense triangle), H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, 3-D pentominoes, and the hunt for a coded message left behind by Wright, and the kids become tangled in a dangerous web in which life and art intermingle with death, deception, and surprise.




Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes


Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Gardener, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny. Be sure to read the companion book, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard. Praise for Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes “Auxier has a juggler’s dexterity with prose that makes this fantastical tale quicken the senses.” –Kirkus Reviews




Ricky Sticky Fingers


Book Description

Meet Ricky! A cute little boy that just can't seem to figure out that stealing is wrong: When I see something that I really want, I think, "Hey, that could be mine!" So I look both ways, reach out my hand, and take it at just the right time. If I ever get caught, I just pretend that it wasn't me that took it. A quick little lie is just what I need, and lying helps me get through it! Taking things that I want to have at times can be very tricky. But there's no way that I can help myself, because all of my fingers are sticky! Ricky learns first-hand what it feels like to have something stolen from him. Then he uses the "GOOD" inside of himself to overtake the "BAD" and returns the items that he took from others. Finally, a book that confronts the issue of stealing and offers a strategy to curb the desire to steal! Through a fun and whimsical story, children will learn the concept of ownership and how it feels when someone doesn't respect what is yours. This book uses empathy in a powerful way to teach children that stealing is wrong.




Alanna


Book Description

A girl disguises herself as a boy to train as a knight in this first book in Tamora Pierce’s Margaret A. Edwards Award–winning young adult series—now with a new look! From now on, I’m Alan of Trebond, the younger twin. I’ll be a knight. In a time when girls are forbidden to be warriors, Alanna of Trebond wants nothing more than to be a knight of the realm of Tortall. So she finds a way to switch places with her twin brother, Thom, and, disguised as a boy, begins her training as a page at the palace of King Roald. But the road to knighthood, as she discovers, is not an easy one. Alanna must master weapons, combat, and magic, as well as polite behavior, her temper, and even her own heart. So begin Alanna’s adventures—filled with swords and sorcery, adventure and intrigue, good and evil—that will lead to the fulfillment of her dreams and make her a legend in the land.




Briar's Book (Circle of Magic #4)


Book Description

The fourth book in the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce.




The Collectors


Book Description

2019 Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book “Original, brave, and addictive.”—Adam Gidwitz, bestselling author of the Newbery Honor Book The Inquisitor’s Tale Fast-paced, witty, and riveting, this contemporary fantasy adventure has magic woven through every page. The Collectors begins an enchanting two-book series from Jacqueline West, the New York Times–bestselling author of The Books of Elsewhere series. For fans of Serafina and the Black Cloak, The Isle of the Lost, and The Secret Keepers. Van has always been an outsider. He’s hard of hearing, collects trinkets, and lives with his single mother—an opera singer with a huge personality. Then one day, Van notices a girl stealing pennies from a fountain, and everything changes. He follows the girl, Pebble, and uncovers an underground society full of wishes and the people who collect them. Not all wishes are good and even good wishes often have unintended consequences, and the Collectors have made it their duty to protect us. But they aren't the only ones who have their eyes on the world’s wishes—and they may not be the good guys, after all. Jacqueline West spins a story about friendship, magic, and the gray area between good and evil. The Collectors is for fans of Cassie Beasley’s Circus Mirandus and Jonathan Auxier’s The Night Gardener. Booklist calls it, “A brilliant fantasy adventure exploring the consequences of getting what you wish for.”