Tiny Living Spaces Meant for Adults, Envisioned by Children

James Estrin/The New York Times Nine-year-old Abby Skiena, left, and her 12-year-old sister, Bonnie, right, made their units with their friend Cora Scolaro, 9.

Gianluca Polenzani, 6, knows exactly what he wants out of an apartment. There has to be a bed big enough for sleepovers. Two bathrooms would be nice. And he requires at least one air-conditioning unit, preferably a brand he knows and trusts.

“Missoobishy,” he scrawled in Crayola marker across a somewhat abstract drawing of a Mitsubishi air-conditioning unit on Sunday, figured on one outer wall of his tiny cardboard diorama of a tiny apartment. Unfortunately, the apartment’s singe inhabitant, Danny, a button-and-Popsicle-stick man, was far too large to fit in the unit’s mini-door, and seemed doomed to overheat.

Gianluca and a dozen other children had just toured the Museum of the City of New York’s “Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers” exhibition, which showcases a 325-square-foot studio apartment similar to those that will fill the city’s first building of micro-units, set to open in 2015. They looked on in awe as a sofa disappeared under a Murphy bed that swung down from the wall, as a museum guide turned a striped ottoman into a coffee table and stools, as a chair became a stepladder and as a flat-screen TV slid to reveal shelves full of toys. (The shelves normally hold liquor bottles, but the museum decided to replace them with more age-appropriate possessions for the day.)

Then â€" in an instance of! Kids Draw the News come to life â€" the young city dwellers set about constructing their own tiny apartments from a palette of buttons, pipe cleaners, construction paper, markers and foam stickers. The results, inevitably, were almost all unlivable â€" some lacking toilets, another entirely filled by a grand piano â€" as their young creators grappled with the grown-up problem of too little real estate for too many things.

Not that their definitions of “tiny” were all the same.

Olivia Steger, 8, designed a modest but bright studio containing a foldout bed, a night stand with storage for cushions and clothes, a small kitchen and bathroom. She had even remembered to include a power outlet and a book.

Asked what Olivia looked for in a home, she said, simply, “A place to live.”

“But not too tiny,” she added.

Among the others who took the space restriction seriously were Bonnie Skiena, 12, and hr sister, Abby, 9, who have their own bedrooms in their family’s home on Long Island but sleep on the floor and the couch when they come to their one-bedroom city apartment on weekends. Envisioning a similar situation for her own micro-apartment, Abby had designed a huge double bed for her parents that filled most of the apartment but conveniently transformed into a dining table and a shower area, complete with a ceiling fan that doubled as a shower head.

James Estrin/The New York Times Bonnie Skiena’s unit.

Bonnie had constructed two twin beds that folded out from the wall like ships’ berths. “It’s a house for two,” she explained.

Her and her sister

“Definitely not,” she said, with a wrinkle of her n! ose.

At the other extreme were several apartments that approached McMansion dimensions, like the triplex of Talar Ajemian, 11, and her sister Lori, 8, who gave their single inhabitant two stories and a rooftop terrace, reachable by floating staircase. No need for convertible furniture here. But where was the bathroom

“We were going to put that in, but we forgot,” Talar said.

Some, perhaps deciding the space restriction was simply impossible to work with, had blazed new trails in apartment design. Nico Polenzani’s micro-unit could spray fire and ice. Lopen Zuo, 5, had festooned his two-box house with traffic signs and a driveway; he said his house could move when cars approached.

Zachary Buman, 4, had decided to decorate his box with splashes of Crayola coloring. “It’s a tower,” he explained.

“Is it the tower of leaning Pisa” inquired his brother, Ben, 7.

“Yes, there’s a pizza in here,” Zachary replied serenely, before sweeping away all space concerns with a rgal wave: “My tower can become anything.”

Graphic Books Best Sellers: Snow White\'s Children Top the List

From “Fables: Cubs in Toyland”

At No. 1 on the graphic books paperback best-seller list this week is Volume 18 of “Fables,” by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham. “Fables,” published by DC Comics, is about storybook characters (from Cinderella to Pinocchio) making their way in the modern world. The ongoing series reaches issue No. 125 this month with an adventure about the Big Bad Wolf, who is learning to drive, and Snow White. In the world of “Fables,” the Wolf and Snow are married and have had children, two of whom take center stage in this volume, titled “Cubs in Toyland.” It’s difficult to say too much without spoiling the story, but their daughter Therese goes off on a adventure that has some dire consequences. It starts out as a trip to an island of misfit toys, but the playthings have a very sad secret.

On Wednesday, “Invincible,” published by Image Comics, reached issue No. 100. This is remarkable for a couple of reasons. The writer of the series is Robert Kirkman, whose series “The Walking Dead” has become a cultural phenomenon. “Invincible,” about Mark Grayson, a young hero finding his footing in the world, has not received as much attention. Getting to issue No. 100 is also quite an accomplishment these days, especially when comic companies have taken to restarting long-running series at issue No. 1 in an attempt to increase sales or pick up new readers. In preparation for reading Volume 17 of the collected edition, which came out last month, I did a marathon rereading of the series. (I do this every so often to decide whether I’m buying a series because of inertia or enjoyment.) The series, illustrated by Ryan Ottley, remains welcome in ! my collection. I enjoy the balance between Mark’s home life and his superhero adventures, particularly his current struggle with how to best serve and protect his world.

As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.

\'Warm Bodies\' Leads on Slow Weekend for Movies

The Super Bowl usually takes a bite out of moviegoing, but yikes: Despite one successful counterprogramming effort â€" “Warm Bodies,” aimed at teenage girls, opened to solid results â€" total ticket sales for the weekend fell 24 percent compared with last year, which was also a very slow box-office period. The biggest casualty was Sylvester Stallone, whose unfortunately titled “Bullet to the Head” (Warner Brothers) took in an anemic $4.5 million, for sixth place, according to Hollywood.com, which complies box-office data.

“Warm Bodies” (Lionsgate), a zombie movie that cost about $30 million to make, was No. 1 with in an estimated $20 million in ticket sales. The rest of the top five movies were all holdovers. “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” (Paramount) generated about $9.2 million in sales, for a two-week total of $34.5 million. “Silver Linings Playbook” (the Weinstein Company) was third, with about $8.1 million in tickets soldto lift its 12-week total to $80.4 million. Fourth place went to “Mama” (Universal), which took in an estimated $6.7 million, for a three-week total of $58.3 million. And “Zero Dark Thirty” (Sony) was fifth, selling an additional $5.3 million in tickets, for a seven-week total of $77.8 million.