Down the Rabbit Hole: The Rabbit Hole, a recently opened interactive children’s museum, houses a new take on children’s books and is a must-visit

Last week, I took a trip down the rabbit hole. Quite literally.

Walking down the rock and dirt steps embedded with book spines and metal letters spelling words and quotes from popular children’s books, I entered The Rabbit Hole, a unique, interactive children’s storybook museum.

The entrance tunnels into the ground and then up into the exhibit — just like a rabbit hole — giving anyone who enters an immediate feel for the creativity of the museum.

Each visitor over 2 years old pays $16 for entry and the museum holds over 40 books all transformed into real life — any little kid’s dream.

Life-size animal statues, fictional characters, popular book scenes that double as playgrounds and of course books, decorate every corner of The Rabbit Hole. I found myself jumping at any opportunity to crawl into a hidden tunnel or up a ladder, all aspects that allow any visitor to immerse themselves in the stories.

Both classic and contemporary books are featured in the museum. A timeless book, “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” published in 1950, had a literal sidewalk floating in the air with two life-sized kids looking over the edge. I was able to tell what the book was before looking at the title.

“I Want My Hat Back,” published in 2011, features a giant bear and a door in its stomach that showed the rabbit that the bear eats in the story — one of the many details that made me laugh.

And if you don’t believe my 17-year-old self’s take on the museum, I have younger kids to back me up. I went to the museum with my second and fourth-grade cousins who called it “magical” and said, “I like this place because you can be in the books.”

Just because the museum is targeted towards kids doesn’t mean adults won’t enjoy a trip back to their childhood. Parents can sit back and watch their kids play and read books with them.

Each exhibit had copies of books that my cousins would read with me. The exhibits also had ample space to sit with benches, chairs and plush carpets. Some even had speakers reading the books out loud for younger kids who haven’t yet mastered their chapter books.

My favorite exhibit, “Good Night Moon,” brought me back to my childhood bedtime stories. The attention to detail in the room made it feel as if I stepped right into the cover of the book.

The walls were green, a window looked out at a starry night sky and there was a life-sized fireplace that even sounded like a fire crackling in the winter. A bed sits on the right side of the rooms and across from it an oversized yellow rocking chair and bookshelf. The old-fashioned phone sitting on the night stand even read the story when you picked it up. Every detail of the room was pulled directly from each line of the book like the “pair of mittens and a little toy house.”

Another one of my favorites was “Caps for Sale,” which similarly replicated the cover of the book. The peddler from the story is replicated in a life-sized sculpture with dozens of multicolored hats on his head. The exhibit had circular cushions shaped like hats for kids to sit on.

There was also an entire exhibit dedicated to Black history. Inside, jazz music was playing and hundreds of books lined the walls. Outside the room, a working, painted mechanical horse was available for kids to ride.

Like the mechanical horse, kids can climb on every sculpture at The Rabbit Hole, unlike a traditional museum where pieces are admired from behind a glass case. I was able to sit on the exact replica of a chair depicted in “A Chair for My Mother” and rode down a literal fire pole from “The Fire Cat.”

The exhibits didn’t stop with one-hit wonders. Stories that were series were often told with multiple picture boxes depicting recognizable scenes from each book.

The storytelling continued outside of the main exhibits. After exiting the main part of the museum, there’s an adorable cafe and each menu item is based on a book like toast and jam for “Bread and Jam for Frances” and a garden salad for “The Runaway Bunny.”

Just next to the cafe is a bookstore with every book in the museum and a reading area with a grass-like rug. On the way out, be sure to look out for the giant talking toilet coming out of one of the bathroom stalls from “Captain Underpants.”

Under every root of The Rabbit Hole, there’s some new detail to be discovered. I’ve already been twice and found so many more details the second time through and expect to find more the next time. Yes, there will definitely be a next time.

While I would love to give a fully detailed explanation of every exhibit in the museum, we’d be here for hours, so I guess you’ll just have to go into The Rabbit Hole yourself.