Day 200: The Magic Tree House Series

 

Our 200th book feels like a big milestone, even though we still have many more to go!  In honor of the occasion, I wanted to feature a book that is especially fabulous and amazing and well-loved in our house.  Actually, it's a whole series of books:  The Magic Treehouse by Mary Pope Osborne.

This is our first foray into the world of what I will call "real" chapter books with our 5 year old son.  Not the early reader kind like Henry and Mudge that we love so much, but paperbacks with illustrations only every few pages.  I can't imagine a better series of books with which to start this grand adventure.  They are amazing!!  Creative, educational, historical, entertaining, and all-around fantastic!  We still read plenty of picture books and will for some time, but if you're looking to start introducing your young reader to chapter books, this series is the perfect place to start. 

In these stories, brother and sister duo Jack and Annie travel through time in a magical treehouse (filled with books!), visiting famous places and people, solving riddles, and going on incredible adventures.   Whether it's to the moon, ancient Egypt, the Great Wall of China, Ancient Greece, or to meet William Shakespeare, each story takes us to a new time and place, and I just love the way history is brought alive along the way. 

I have to say, though, that while I've had the pleasure of reading a few of these wonderful books with my son, they have been in daddy's domain from the beginning.  My husband is usually the one who reads our little guy at bedtime, and I absolutely love that they have this tradition now.  It makes me so happy to know that someday they will both look back so fondly on reading these stories together.  

To say that my son loves these books is an understatement.  He can't get enough of them! We've been flying through the series incredibly quickly, taking 5 or 6 books out from the library at a time and reading one almost every night.  Thank goodness there are 49 books in the series! (with a 50th slated to come out this July.)  Most local libraries seem to have the whole series, though we've had to make the rounds a bit to get the exact one we need.  (Although there is a prologue at the beginning of each book to explain the background of the story, the series is most enjoyable if read in order.)  Each book has 10 chapters, is about 75 pages, and takes us about 45 minutes to read aloud.  It makes for longer bedtime reading than usual, but the books are simply too exciting to be read over multiple nights!  

Here's what my little guy has to say about the Magic Treehouse books:  

"My favorite thing about the Magic Tree House books is that we get to read new ones all the time!  Annie is silly and can make friends with animals.  Jack loves notebooks and writes about animals and other things that they see.  There is Morgan La Fey living in the treehouse.  She is an enchanted librarian.  Jack and Annie take the treehouse to all kinds of places -- like under the sea, to see the dinosaurs, on ships, and to visit the moon.  They also get to go on the Titanic!  Jack and Annie have to get a gift from someone or something and they free Morgan and Teddy from spells.  There's a dog named Teddy.  The dinosaur one is my favorite because I love dinosaurs.  But I love all of them!"

We hope you do, too!