What were your favorite books during childhood? Did you ever yearn to be a part of the worlds they conjured? Did you ever draw or map out a children’s book, or even make a shoe-box diorama based on one?
If so, the creators behind the Rabbit Hole, a new museum in Kansas City, Mo., understand those feelings. In “Once Upon a Time, the World of Picture Books Came to Life,” the New York Times Book Review writer Elizabeth Egan describes her visit to the museum, whose main floor consists of 40 book-themed dioramas “blown up to life-size and arranged, Ikea showroom-style, in a space the size of two hockey rinks.”
Here is how her article begins:
On a crisp Saturday morning that screamed for adventure, a former tin can factory in North Kansas City, Mo., thrummed with the sound of young people climbing, sliding, spinning, jumping, exploring and reading.
Yes, reading.
If you think this is a silent activity, you haven’t spent time in a first grade classroom. And if you think all indoor destinations for young people are sticky, smelly, depressing hellholes, check your assumptions at the unmarked front door.
Welcome to the Rabbit Hole, a brand-new, decade-in-the-making museum of children’s literature founded by the only people with the stamina for such a feat: former bookstore owners. Pete Cowdin and Deb Pettid are long-married artists who share the bullish determination of the Little Red Hen. They’ve transformed the hulking old building into a series of settings lifted straight from the pages of beloved picture books.
Before we get into what the Rabbit Hole is, here’s what it isn’t: a place with touch screens, a ball pit, inscrutable plaques, velvet ropes, a cloying soundtrack or adults in costumes. It doesn’t smell like graham crackers, apple juice or worse (yet). At $16 per person over 2 years old, it also isn’t cheap.
To fully appreciate this article, however, make sure to scroll through the images. For example, without looking at the caption, can you tell what children’s book is being depicted in the diorama below?