Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Added example(s), Crosswicking, Example does not sufficiently explain how it applies, General clarification on work content
Changed line(s) 8 (click to see context) from:
* AirVentEscape: It's much more roomy if you are five inches tall. Just watch out when actually in use.
to:
* AirVentEscape: It's The two kids manage to fit easily in the Museum's air vents as they have been [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrunk down to five inches]]. Getting up to the vents was much more roomy if you are five inches tall. Just watch out when actually in use.harder.
Changed line(s) 10 (click to see context) from:
%%* AnachronismStew: An in-universe example which only adds to the mystery that Ruthie is investigating.
to:
Changed line(s) 21,22 (click to see context) from:
* DuctTapeForEverything: Even gets a chapter named after the stuff. It works well as a sticky climbing wall for shrunken children.
* GrailInTheGarbage: The key, which not only is historic (it once belonged to Christina of Milan), but also can cause girls to shrink had been found by three children in an area behind the exhibit. Jack found it on the floor near some cleaning materials.
* GrailInTheGarbage: The key, which not only is historic (it once belonged to Christina of Milan), but also can cause girls to shrink had been found by three children in an area behind the exhibit. Jack found it on the floor near some cleaning materials.
to:
* DuctTapeForEverything: Even gets a chapter named after the stuff. It works well The main characters use it as a sticky climbing wall for shrunken children.
when they shrink themselves to five inches tall. There is even a chapter titled after this versatile tape in the book.
* GrailInTheGarbage: The key, which is not onlyis historic (it once belonged to Christina of Milan), but can also can cause girls to shrink had been shrink. It was found by three children in an area behind the exhibit. exhibit; Jack found finds it on the floor near some cleaning materials.
* GrailInTheGarbage: The key, which is not only
Changed line(s) 24 (click to see context) from:
* MagicPants: Their clothes shrink with them, but do so at slightly differing rates.
to:
* TheMagicGoesAway: The final book centers on the remaining loose ends surrounding the Key of Christina of Milan. The previous books established how the key worked in relation to the Thorne Miniature Rooms, including access to the time periods represented by each room via a specific artifact, and all the rules of time travel that went with it. [[spoiler:Jack and Ruthie finish it off by meeting Narcissa Thorne herself, who gives them a box that contains a spell to deactivate the key's magic. They use that spell for the sake of keeping time safe, and Ruthie wears the dormant key around her neck after that.]]
* MagicPants:Their The children's clothes shrink with them, them whenever they use the key's powers, but do so at slightly differing rates.
* MagicPants:
Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* OddFriendship: Jack and Ruthie were described as being opposites.
to:
Changed line(s) 29 (click to see context) from:
* PortalPicture: The rooms work as this trope, with the painted outdoor scene backgrounds becoming the real world outside.
to:
* PortalPicture: The rooms work as this trope, this, with the painted outdoor scene backgrounds becoming the real world outside.
* SkeletonKeyCard: Jack does this with his library card, to hold open a door leading into the maintenance area behind the Thorne rooms.
Changed line(s) 40 (click to see context) from:
** A minor issue -- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00.
to:
** A minor issue -- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00. They did not sit for over an hour.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
General clarification on work content
Changed line(s) 20 (click to see context) from:
* DramaticWind: Whenever the key started to work, Ruthie felt a wind blow through her hair.
to:
* DramaticWind: Whenever Each time Ruthie touches the key started to work, Ruthie felt and shrinks, a gust of wind blow through her hair.blows past her.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* CoolKey: The enchanted key crafted by Christina of Milan allows any woman who touches it to shrink.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Downplayed. Jack showed Thomas (from the seventeenth century) a flashlight, but tried to explain how it worked. Thomas, eight years old, doesn't understand, but comments that if it was witchcraft, he wasn't afraid of it.
to:
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Downplayed. Jack showed Thomas (from the seventeenth 17th century) a flashlight, but tried to explain how it worked. Thomas, being eight years old, doesn't understand, but comments that if it was witchcraft, he wasn't afraid of it.it. [[spoiler:Thomas later becomes an inventor.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Changed line(s) 9,10 (click to see context) from:
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The characters thought of or referred to the bug that attacked them as both a cockroach and a water bug, neither of which actually match the description of the bug in question, which was about three inches in length. Justified since they were eleven-years-old and wouldn't know the differences between bugs,
* AnachronismStew: An in-universe example which only adds to the mystery that Ruthie is investigating.
* AnachronismStew: An in-universe example which only adds to the mystery that Ruthie is investigating.
to:
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The characters thought of or referred to the bug that attacked them as both a cockroach and a water bug, neither of which actually match the description of the bug in question, which was about three inches in length. Justified since they were eleven-years-old eleven years old and wouldn't know the differences between bugs,
* %%* AnachronismStew: An in-universe example which only adds to the mystery that Ruthie is investigating.
Changed line(s) 12,16 (click to see context) from:
* CassandraTruth: A young girl saw a shrunken Ruthie in one of the rooms, leading her to tell her mother that there was a doll in the room. Ruthie left before the mother could look in. Later, normal size, the girl saw Ruthie and told her mother Ruthie was the doll she saw, leading to a bemused Ruthie smiling and the mother telling her daughter she was wrong.
** [[spoiler: Mr. Bell's daughter]] tried to tell her father she left her backpack in one of the rooms. That led to the father taking her to therapy. Ruthie and Jack knew if they told anyone, they would be told they were crazy.
*** Later Averted when they told [[spoiler: Mrs. Mc Vittie]]
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Downplayed and partly averted. Jack showed Thomas (from the seventeenth century) a flashlight, but tried to explain how it worked. Thomas, eight years old, doesn't understand, but comments that if it was witchcraft, he wasn't afraid of it.
* CoolOldLady: Mrs. Mc Vittie.
** [[spoiler: Mr. Bell's daughter]] tried to tell her father she left her backpack in one of the rooms. That led to the father taking her to therapy. Ruthie and Jack knew if they told anyone, they would be told they were crazy.
*** Later Averted when they told [[spoiler: Mrs. Mc Vittie]]
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Downplayed and partly averted. Jack showed Thomas (from the seventeenth century) a flashlight, but tried to explain how it worked. Thomas, eight years old, doesn't understand, but comments that if it was witchcraft, he wasn't afraid of it.
* CoolOldLady: Mrs. Mc Vittie.
to:
* CassandraTruth: CassandraTruth:
** A young girl saw a shrunken Ruthie in one of the rooms, leading her to tell her mother that there was a doll in the room. Ruthie left before the mother could look in. Later, normal size, the girl saw Ruthie and told her mother Ruthie was the doll she saw, leading to a bemused Ruthie smiling and the mother telling her daughter she was wrong.
**[[spoiler: Mr.[[spoiler:Mr. Bell's daughter]] tried to tell her father she left her backpack in one of the rooms. That led to the father taking her to therapy. Ruthie and Jack knew if they told anyone, they would be told they were crazy.
*** Later Avertedcrazy. It's later averted when they told [[spoiler: Mrs. Mc Vittie]]
[[spoiler:Mrs. [=McVittie=]]].
* ClarkesThirdLaw:Downplayed and partly averted.Downplayed. Jack showed Thomas (from the seventeenth century) a flashlight, but tried to explain how it worked. Thomas, eight years old, doesn't understand, but comments that if it was witchcraft, he wasn't afraid of it.
* %%* CoolOldLady: Mrs. Mc Vittie.[=McVittie=].
** A young girl saw a shrunken Ruthie in one of the rooms, leading her to tell her mother that there was a doll in the room. Ruthie left before the mother could look in. Later, normal size, the girl saw Ruthie and told her mother Ruthie was the doll she saw, leading to a bemused Ruthie smiling and the mother telling her daughter she was wrong.
**
*** Later Averted
* ClarkesThirdLaw:
Deleted line(s) 21 (click to see context) :
* [[IncredibleShrinkingMan Incredible Shrinking Kids]]: Part of the plot is the key shrinks Ruthie.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: Part of the plot is the key shrinking Ruthie.
Changed line(s) 24,25 (click to see context) from:
* MissingMom: In Mr. Bell's backstory, his wife died when their daughter was seven and his daughter seemed to have trouble with her mother's death, [[spoiler: in particular by telling her father that she lost her backpack [[CassandraTruth when she shrunk and went into the Thorne Rooms]].]]
* NobodyPoops: A slight aversion. While they were shown going to the bathroom twice, Jack and Ruthie did seem to last an extremely long time without going, from around 4:30pm on Saturday to 7:00am on Sunday morning.
* NobodyPoops: A slight aversion. While they were shown going to the bathroom twice, Jack and Ruthie did seem to last an extremely long time without going, from around 4:30pm on Saturday to 7:00am on Sunday morning.
to:
* MissingMom: In Mr. Bell's backstory, his wife died when their daughter was seven and his daughter seemed to have trouble with her mother's death, [[spoiler: in [[spoiler:in particular by telling her father that she lost her backpack [[CassandraTruth when she shrunk and went into the Thorne Rooms]].]]
Rooms]]]].
* NobodyPoops:A slight aversion.Downplayed. While they were shown going to the bathroom twice, Jack and Ruthie did seem to last an extremely long time without going, from around 4:30pm on Saturday to 7:00am on Sunday morning.
* NobodyPoops:
Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* OldManMarryingAChild: Part of the story involved the story of Christina of Milan, who was married at 12 to Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (he died a year later without the two ever meeting). She was courted by King Henry VIII when she was 16, but liked her head too much to agree. This trope was also going to be the fate of Sophie, the aristocrat Ruthie and Jack met while in 18th century Paris, but it was averted.
to:
* OldManMarryingAChild: Part of the story involved the story of Christina of Milan, who was married at 12 to Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (he died a year later without the two ever meeting). She was courted by King Henry VIII when she was 16, but liked her head too much to agree. This trope was also going to be the fate of Sophie, the aristocrat Ruthie and Jack met while in 18th century Paris, but it was averted.averted with their intervention.
Changed line(s) 29,30 (click to see context) from:
* SecretKeeper: Jack and Ruthie eventually tell [[spoiler: Mrs McVittie]] everything about their adventures in the Thorne Rooms.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Sophie's diary changes after Ruthie and Jack meet her]]
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Sophie's diary changes after Ruthie and Jack meet her]]
to:
* SecretKeeper: Jack and Ruthie eventually tell [[spoiler: Mrs McVittie]] [[spoiler:Mrs [=McVittie=]]] everything about their adventures in the Thorne Rooms.
* %%* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Sophie's [[spoiler:Sophie's diary changes after Ruthie and Jack meet her]]her.]] %%what was wrong? what went right?
Changed line(s) 32,34 (click to see context) from:
* SurprisinglyFunctionalToys: Played with using a magical key that only shrinks Ruthie - along with anyone else in physical contact. Not only do the miniatures in the Thorne rooms work, including a violin that plays and an awesomely comfy bed, the painted backgrounds are transformed into portals to the time period whichever room is dedicated to. However, a certain miniature object must be present for the portal to function.
* WhatYearIsThis: Jack and Ruthie managed to avoid asking this while still getting an answer twice. In the American room, they ask for the day and Thomas dutifully replies the full date. With Sophie and her tutor, they just give the month and day so Jack, based on his knowledge of certain parts of history, guesses the year. He is off by one which Ruthie passes off as a joke.
* WitchHunt: They went to Massachusetts during the height of the Salem Witch Trials. It was an accurate description where the problem described was mistrust, especially of strangers and that people were hanged, not burned.
* WhatYearIsThis: Jack and Ruthie managed to avoid asking this while still getting an answer twice. In the American room, they ask for the day and Thomas dutifully replies the full date. With Sophie and her tutor, they just give the month and day so Jack, based on his knowledge of certain parts of history, guesses the year. He is off by one which Ruthie passes off as a joke.
* WitchHunt: They went to Massachusetts during the height of the Salem Witch Trials. It was an accurate description where the problem described was mistrust, especially of strangers and that people were hanged, not burned.
to:
* SurprisinglyFunctionalToys: Played with using a magical key that only shrinks Ruthie - -- along with anyone else in physical contact. Not only do the miniatures in the Thorne rooms work, including a violin that plays and an awesomely comfy bed, the painted backgrounds are transformed into portals to the time period whichever room is dedicated to. However, a certain miniature object must be present for the portal to function.
* WhatYearIsThis: Jack and Ruthie managed to avoid asking this while still getting an answer twice. In the American room, they ask for the day and Thomas dutifully replies the full date. With Sophie and her tutor, they just give the month and day so Jack, based on his knowledge of certain parts of history, guesses the year. He is off byone one, which Ruthie passes off as a joke.
*WitchHunt: WitchHunt:
** They went to Massachusetts during the height of the Salem Witch Trials. It was an accurate description where the problem described was mistrust, especially of strangers and that people were hanged, not burned.
* WhatYearIsThis: Jack and Ruthie managed to avoid asking this while still getting an answer twice. In the American room, they ask for the day and Thomas dutifully replies the full date. With Sophie and her tutor, they just give the month and day so Jack, based on his knowledge of certain parts of history, guesses the year. He is off by
*
** They went to Massachusetts during the height of the Salem Witch Trials. It was an accurate description where the problem described was mistrust, especially of strangers and that people were hanged, not burned.
Changed line(s) 36,37 (click to see context) from:
* WritersCannotDoMath: The kids shrink to the same scale as the Thorne rooms--one inch to one foot. When Ruthie comes across a crack on the ledge that measures a half an inch, the story states she finds it too large to walk over on her own. This crack would actually be scaled to six inches to the shrunken Ruthie, an easy obstacle to walk past.
** A minor issue-- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00.
** A minor issue-- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00.
to:
* WritersCannotDoMath: WritersCannotDoMath:
** The kids shrink to the same scale as the Thornerooms--one rooms -- one inch to one foot. When Ruthie comes across a crack on the ledge that measures a half an inch, the story states she finds it too large to walk over on her own. This crack would actually be scaled to six inches to the shrunken Ruthie, an easy obstacle to walk past.
** A minorissue-- issue -- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00.
** The kids shrink to the same scale as the Thorne
** A minor
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 3,4 (click to see context) from:
A children's/young teens book by Marianne Malone. While on their sixth grade field trip at the Art Institute of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, Jack and Ruthie look at the Sixty Eight Thorne Miniature Rooms. Looking in a hallway behind the rooms, Jack finds a key, one that they soon find out shrinks Ruthie down small enough to fit into the rooms. They find out that the rooms now are actually gateways into the past, from Massachusetts during the time of the Salem With Trials to Eighteenth Century France right before the Revolution. But how does this work and who else knows?
to:
A children's/young teens book by Marianne Malone. While on their sixth grade field trip at the Art Institute of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, Jack and Ruthie look at the Sixty Eight Thorne Miniature Rooms. Looking in a hallway behind the rooms, Jack finds a key, one that they soon find out shrinks Ruthie down small enough to fit into the rooms. They find out that the rooms now are actually gateways into the past, from Massachusetts during the time of the Salem With Witch Trials to Eighteenth Century France right before the Revolution. But how does this work and who else knows?
Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
!! This book provides examples of:
to:
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
** A minor issue-- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00.
to:
** A minor issue-- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00.6:00.
----
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
The original story title had a 'the' at the start; remaking the page to move all examples here
Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sixty_eight_rooms.jpg]]
A children's/young teens book by Marianne Malone. While on their sixth grade field trip at the Art Institute of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, Jack and Ruthie look at the Sixty Eight Thorne Miniature Rooms. Looking in a hallway behind the rooms, Jack finds a key, one that they soon find out shrinks Ruthie down small enough to fit into the rooms. They find out that the rooms now are actually gateways into the past, from Massachusetts during the time of the Salem With Trials to Eighteenth Century France right before the Revolution. But how does this work and who else knows?
----
!! This book provides examples of:
* AirVentEscape: It's much more roomy if you are five inches tall. Just watch out when actually in use.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The characters thought of or referred to the bug that attacked them as both a cockroach and a water bug, neither of which actually match the description of the bug in question, which was about three inches in length. Justified since they were eleven-years-old and wouldn't know the differences between bugs,
* AnachronismStew: An in-universe example which only adds to the mystery that Ruthie is investigating.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Inverted. A bug looked monstrous to two five-inch kids.
* CassandraTruth: A young girl saw a shrunken Ruthie in one of the rooms, leading her to tell her mother that there was a doll in the room. Ruthie left before the mother could look in. Later, normal size, the girl saw Ruthie and told her mother Ruthie was the doll she saw, leading to a bemused Ruthie smiling and the mother telling her daughter she was wrong.
** [[spoiler: Mr. Bell's daughter]] tried to tell her father she left her backpack in one of the rooms. That led to the father taking her to therapy. Ruthie and Jack knew if they told anyone, they would be told they were crazy.
*** Later Averted when they told [[spoiler: Mrs. Mc Vittie]]
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Downplayed and partly averted. Jack showed Thomas (from the seventeenth century) a flashlight, but tried to explain how it worked. Thomas, eight years old, doesn't understand, but comments that if it was witchcraft, he wasn't afraid of it.
* CoolOldLady: Mrs. Mc Vittie.
* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover shows Ruthie walking off a hand into the front of a room (the place viewers looked into them). The front of the rooms were closed and locked and the kids entered though the back. Also, the rooms were shown to be right next to each other as well as staggered in at least three rows one on top of the other. In reality, the museum has them arranged a short distance apart and in a single row.
* DisappearedDad: Jack is raised only by his mother. The lack of a father isn't a plot issue, but their lack of money is.
* DramaticWind: Whenever the key started to work, Ruthie felt a wind blow through her hair.
* DuctTapeForEverything: Even gets a chapter named after the stuff. It works well as a sticky climbing wall for shrunken children.
* [[IncredibleShrinkingMan Incredible Shrinking Kids]]: Part of the plot is the key shrinks Ruthie.
* GrailInTheGarbage: The key, which not only is historic (it once belonged to Christina of Milan), but also can cause girls to shrink had been found by three children in an area behind the exhibit. Jack found it on the floor near some cleaning materials.
* MagicPants: Their clothes shrink with them, but do so at slightly differing rates.
* MissingMom: In Mr. Bell's backstory, his wife died when their daughter was seven and his daughter seemed to have trouble with her mother's death, [[spoiler: in particular by telling her father that she lost her backpack [[CassandraTruth when she shrunk and went into the Thorne Rooms]].]]
* NobodyPoops: A slight aversion. While they were shown going to the bathroom twice, Jack and Ruthie did seem to last an extremely long time without going, from around 4:30pm on Saturday to 7:00am on Sunday morning.
* OddFriendship: Jack and Ruthie were described as being opposites.
* OldManMarryingAChild: Part of the story involved the story of Christina of Milan, who was married at 12 to Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (he died a year later without the two ever meeting). She was courted by King Henry VIII when she was 16, but liked her head too much to agree. This trope was also going to be the fate of Sophie, the aristocrat Ruthie and Jack met while in 18th century Paris, but it was averted.
* PortalPicture: The rooms work as this trope, with the painted outdoor scene backgrounds becoming the real world outside.
* SecretKeeper: Jack and Ruthie eventually tell [[spoiler: Mrs McVittie]] everything about their adventures in the Thorne Rooms.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Sophie's diary changes after Ruthie and Jack meet her]]
* StarvingArtist: Jack's mother is a poor artist who is [[ForgotToPayTheBill behind on the rent]].
* SurprisinglyFunctionalToys: Played with using a magical key that only shrinks Ruthie - along with anyone else in physical contact. Not only do the miniatures in the Thorne rooms work, including a violin that plays and an awesomely comfy bed, the painted backgrounds are transformed into portals to the time period whichever room is dedicated to. However, a certain miniature object must be present for the portal to function.
* WhatYearIsThis: Jack and Ruthie managed to avoid asking this while still getting an answer twice. In the American room, they ask for the day and Thomas dutifully replies the full date. With Sophie and her tutor, they just give the month and day so Jack, based on his knowledge of certain parts of history, guesses the year. He is off by one which Ruthie passes off as a joke.
* WitchHunt: They went to Massachusetts during the height of the Salem Witch Trials. It was an accurate description where the problem described was mistrust, especially of strangers and that people were hanged, not burned.
** While not described in the text, an illustration showed some townsfolk with TorchesAndPitchforks just outside the window from where Ruthie and Jack were looking.
* WritersCannotDoMath: The kids shrink to the same scale as the Thorne rooms--one inch to one foot. When Ruthie comes across a crack on the ledge that measures a half an inch, the story states she finds it too large to walk over on her own. This crack would actually be scaled to six inches to the shrunken Ruthie, an easy obstacle to walk past.
** A minor issue-- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00.
A children's/young teens book by Marianne Malone. While on their sixth grade field trip at the Art Institute of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, Jack and Ruthie look at the Sixty Eight Thorne Miniature Rooms. Looking in a hallway behind the rooms, Jack finds a key, one that they soon find out shrinks Ruthie down small enough to fit into the rooms. They find out that the rooms now are actually gateways into the past, from Massachusetts during the time of the Salem With Trials to Eighteenth Century France right before the Revolution. But how does this work and who else knows?
----
!! This book provides examples of:
* AirVentEscape: It's much more roomy if you are five inches tall. Just watch out when actually in use.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The characters thought of or referred to the bug that attacked them as both a cockroach and a water bug, neither of which actually match the description of the bug in question, which was about three inches in length. Justified since they were eleven-years-old and wouldn't know the differences between bugs,
* AnachronismStew: An in-universe example which only adds to the mystery that Ruthie is investigating.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Inverted. A bug looked monstrous to two five-inch kids.
* CassandraTruth: A young girl saw a shrunken Ruthie in one of the rooms, leading her to tell her mother that there was a doll in the room. Ruthie left before the mother could look in. Later, normal size, the girl saw Ruthie and told her mother Ruthie was the doll she saw, leading to a bemused Ruthie smiling and the mother telling her daughter she was wrong.
** [[spoiler: Mr. Bell's daughter]] tried to tell her father she left her backpack in one of the rooms. That led to the father taking her to therapy. Ruthie and Jack knew if they told anyone, they would be told they were crazy.
*** Later Averted when they told [[spoiler: Mrs. Mc Vittie]]
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Downplayed and partly averted. Jack showed Thomas (from the seventeenth century) a flashlight, but tried to explain how it worked. Thomas, eight years old, doesn't understand, but comments that if it was witchcraft, he wasn't afraid of it.
* CoolOldLady: Mrs. Mc Vittie.
* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover shows Ruthie walking off a hand into the front of a room (the place viewers looked into them). The front of the rooms were closed and locked and the kids entered though the back. Also, the rooms were shown to be right next to each other as well as staggered in at least three rows one on top of the other. In reality, the museum has them arranged a short distance apart and in a single row.
* DisappearedDad: Jack is raised only by his mother. The lack of a father isn't a plot issue, but their lack of money is.
* DramaticWind: Whenever the key started to work, Ruthie felt a wind blow through her hair.
* DuctTapeForEverything: Even gets a chapter named after the stuff. It works well as a sticky climbing wall for shrunken children.
* [[IncredibleShrinkingMan Incredible Shrinking Kids]]: Part of the plot is the key shrinks Ruthie.
* GrailInTheGarbage: The key, which not only is historic (it once belonged to Christina of Milan), but also can cause girls to shrink had been found by three children in an area behind the exhibit. Jack found it on the floor near some cleaning materials.
* MagicPants: Their clothes shrink with them, but do so at slightly differing rates.
* MissingMom: In Mr. Bell's backstory, his wife died when their daughter was seven and his daughter seemed to have trouble with her mother's death, [[spoiler: in particular by telling her father that she lost her backpack [[CassandraTruth when she shrunk and went into the Thorne Rooms]].]]
* NobodyPoops: A slight aversion. While they were shown going to the bathroom twice, Jack and Ruthie did seem to last an extremely long time without going, from around 4:30pm on Saturday to 7:00am on Sunday morning.
* OddFriendship: Jack and Ruthie were described as being opposites.
* OldManMarryingAChild: Part of the story involved the story of Christina of Milan, who was married at 12 to Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (he died a year later without the two ever meeting). She was courted by King Henry VIII when she was 16, but liked her head too much to agree. This trope was also going to be the fate of Sophie, the aristocrat Ruthie and Jack met while in 18th century Paris, but it was averted.
* PortalPicture: The rooms work as this trope, with the painted outdoor scene backgrounds becoming the real world outside.
* SecretKeeper: Jack and Ruthie eventually tell [[spoiler: Mrs McVittie]] everything about their adventures in the Thorne Rooms.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: Sophie's diary changes after Ruthie and Jack meet her]]
* StarvingArtist: Jack's mother is a poor artist who is [[ForgotToPayTheBill behind on the rent]].
* SurprisinglyFunctionalToys: Played with using a magical key that only shrinks Ruthie - along with anyone else in physical contact. Not only do the miniatures in the Thorne rooms work, including a violin that plays and an awesomely comfy bed, the painted backgrounds are transformed into portals to the time period whichever room is dedicated to. However, a certain miniature object must be present for the portal to function.
* WhatYearIsThis: Jack and Ruthie managed to avoid asking this while still getting an answer twice. In the American room, they ask for the day and Thomas dutifully replies the full date. With Sophie and her tutor, they just give the month and day so Jack, based on his knowledge of certain parts of history, guesses the year. He is off by one which Ruthie passes off as a joke.
* WitchHunt: They went to Massachusetts during the height of the Salem Witch Trials. It was an accurate description where the problem described was mistrust, especially of strangers and that people were hanged, not burned.
** While not described in the text, an illustration showed some townsfolk with TorchesAndPitchforks just outside the window from where Ruthie and Jack were looking.
* WritersCannotDoMath: The kids shrink to the same scale as the Thorne rooms--one inch to one foot. When Ruthie comes across a crack on the ledge that measures a half an inch, the story states she finds it too large to walk over on her own. This crack would actually be scaled to six inches to the shrunken Ruthie, an easy obstacle to walk past.
** A minor issue-- the museum was stated to close at 5 pm. Jack and Ruthie slipped into the corridor at 4:55 and got up when Jack looked at his watch to read 6:00.
