The Magic House Children’s Museum (516 S. Kirkwood) wants St. Louis kids to know there’s a hero inside all of us. From Harriet Tubman to Dolly Parton to Albert Einstein, every textbook protagonist started somewhere—and each had a childhood.
That’s the theme of the Ordinary People Change the World book series by author Brad Meltzer and illustrator Christopher Eliopoulos, which serves as the inspirational backbone of The Magic House’s newest interactive exhibit, Hero Quest. Opening September 20, the scavenger hunt begins with a “passport,” which can be picked up at the welcome kiosk, guiding kids to larger-than-life displays with books and thematic activities throughout the museum.
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The Jim Henson display, for example, will be located near the Story Time Magic space, Marie Curie will sit right outside the science lab, and Leonardo Da Vinci will find a home in the maker’s space. “For Jim Henson, we made a ’60s TV set and puppets from the Muppets,” says Beth Fitzgerald, president of The Magic House. “Children can go behind the TV as a puppet stage, and then we have a ’60s-looking couch for the parents to sit on, and kids can perform a puppet show.”
The key to each activity is that it relates back to a theme that’s essential for character development, programming which was created with help from St. Louis-based education organization CharacterPlus. The Jim Henson puppet shows are intended to act out concepts of kindness, and the Frida Kahlo self-portrait station is all about courage and self-reflection. “It’s really trying to make a connection between your hands-on experience and what is featured in the book, as well as a way to get children to think a little bit more deeply,” Fitzgerald says.
Fitzgerald hopes that kids will become inspired to learn more about these historic heroes by scanning the corresponding QR code next to the display and diving into further at-home educational activities on the website. “We’re hoping parents walk away with a broader understanding of how important they are to helping their children become good people, and we’re hoping the children will walk away being more self-reflective of, ‘How can I do good things?’”
The finale of the scavenger hunt leads to a dining table and a wall of 16 questions that encourage problem-solving discussions for families—an activation meant to mimic the perhaps all-too-nostalgic practice of talking over dinner as a family. “They’re hypothetical questions that children can think about and explore with their parents, about how there might be a good outcome to those questions or how to do the ‘right’ thing,” Fitzgerald says.
Eliopoulos plans to visit during the exhibit’s grand opening on September 20, and Meltzer plans to visit in January. It’s not the first time that Meltzer has collaborated with the children’s museum on programming; he worked with PBS Kids to create the TV series Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum, which was the foundation of The Magic House’s eponymous traveling exhibit and will return to its Kirkwood roots on September 20. That exhibit, like the book and PBS series on which it’s based, also deals with historical figures and the character education within their stories.
The Hero Quest project is part of Fostering Character Through Children’s Museums, a Lilly Endowment initiative. As one of 15 museums being funded through the initiative, Fitzgerald explains, local universities are helping The Magic House evaluate the exhibit’s impact, while CharacterPlus is lending credibility to its programming—expertise that the staff valued greatly, especially because of the character-driven topic area for the museum, which normally deals with STEM, reading, and communication arts programming. The Ordinary People books made an ideal fit for the mission’s pillars of kindness, courage, and curiosity.
“The books really are so strong in character development,” Fitzgerald says. “They focus on people who made a true difference, most of whom came from very simple means—young people who had to overcome adversity and challenges themselves. Meltzer has written about a very diverse group of people, and he picks people who really have had challenges in their lives… All of the books start off with the character as a child and how they had difficulties, just like all children do growing up, and how they were able to overcome those challenges.”
Hero Quest‘s impact will carry beyond The Magic House’s walls next summer, when the initiative will venture community-wide, with 20 different installations throughout the St. Louis Public Library branches, the St. Louis Science Center, and other family-friendly venues. The community effort will kick off in May, during the museum’s annual Play Day in the Park event.
Says Fitzgerald: “With Hero Quest as a whole, we are aiming to raise awareness of how important it is for families to have character development conversations and experiences with their kids and just try to elevate that in the community’s mind, to make a stronger community overall.”
