The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne is full of adventure and interesting facts that young children will enjoy reading about. In the first book of the series Dinosaurs Before Dark, we are introduced to the two main characters Jack and Annie who live in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. Jack is a very smart boy who loves books and learning new and interesting facts, and Annie is his adventurous sister who isn’t afraid of anything and seems to have a special connection with animals. The story begins when the two are on their way home and Annie discovers a tree house in the middle of the woods. Fearless as she is, Annie decides to climb up into the tree house against her brothers warning and finds that it is filled with books. Since Jack loves books he reluctantly climbs into the tree house. Once inside, the two find that there are books about many different things such as the place where they live, but the book that interests Jack is one about dinosaurs. While Jack is looking at a picture of a dinosaur in the book he wishes he could see it in person and with a few spins of the tree house the two children are transported to the time of the dinosaurs. While there they meet many types of dinosaurs, which Jack takes notes about, and almost get eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Jack and Annie also find a medallion with an “M” engraved on it which meant that somebody had been there before them. In the end, when the two children found the book about Frog Creek, they pointed to a picture of there home, wished to be there and were transported home where no time had passed.I really like adventure books and enjoyed reading about the amazing adventure that Jack and Annie got to go on. I think that every child wishes that they could find a magic tree house that could transport them to any time and place, and it’s great that this book allows the reader to go on these awesome journeys with Jack and Annie. The characters in this book are great and they balance each other well because Jack is the smart one who knows what to do when there is trouble and his sister Annie is the adventurous one who gets Jack to do these amazing things such as riding on a flying dinosaur that he would never do on his own. The book cover, which depicted the most exciting scene of the story, really drew me in because I wanted to know why a young boy was on the back of a dinosaur and how he got there. The illustrator, Sal Murdocca, drew a lot of illustrations throughout this chapter book that help the reader to visualize what it looked like in the dinosaur age and what the different dinosaurs Jack and Annie encountered looked like. These illustrations not only depicted the setting, but also showed Jack and Annie in action such as when they are running away from dinosaurs which really help a young reader feel like they are in the story with the two main characters.Overall, I think that the Magic Tree House series would work best for children in 1st and 2nd grade who have recently transitioned from picture books to chapter books because the text is easy to read, there are a lot of illustrations, and the stories are not very long. The books in this series are great for students to read on their own because they will enjoy getting caught up in the exciting adventures that Jack and Annie go on.
"Dawn of the Dinosaurs" is the first book in this series by Mary Pope Osborne. The books starts off when Jack and Annie find this tree house while walking in the woods in Frog Creek. They decide to see what is inside the mysterious looking tree house. Inside they found a whole bunch of books. Jack found a book about dinosaurs, and starts thinking how cool it would be to see a dinosaur in real life. Before they knew it Jack and Annie were taken back in time to prehistoric times. They first encounter three different dinosaurs, a triceratops, a pteranodon, and an anatosauruses. While searching around looking for other dinosaurs Jack finds a medallion with the letter “M”on it. Jack becomes very interested in trying to figure out what the medallion stands for. Awhile later the siblings see a tyrannosaurus rex chasing after them. They do the best they can to outrun the dinosaurs. They make it to the tree house safely until Jack realize forgot the book when he was looking at dinosaurs in the meadow area. He runs to get his book, and on the way back he sees the tyrannosaurus rex in the way of the tree house. Luckily a pteranodon picked Jack up and brought him to the tree house. The children return to Pennsylvania and agree not to tell anyone about the dinosaurs.The main characters of this book are Jack and Annie. They are very close siblings. Jack is eight and loves dinosaurs, and that is the reason he chose the book he did. Jack is smart and older than his sister. Annie is seven and a very easygoing little girl. She feels Jack is sometimes too protective of her.The setting of this book starts off in the tree house, which is located in their hometown of Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. The setting then moves to a meadow area where they find the dinosaurs. The time period of this book starts off in modern times but then moves to prehistoric times.The theme of this book is adventure. Jack and Annie went on their first adventure together. They had a fun time seeing and learning about the dinosaurs. Another theme of this book is teamwork. The siblings work together to back it back to the tree house before the tyrannosaurus rex caught them.I would recommend this book to younger children. It allows them to fantasize what it would be like to see real dinosaurs in life. This book is easy to read and creates an easy mental image.
Some of my students in Phoenix, as well as my little cousin, have been big fans of Magic Tree House. This was the first time I'd read any of the books, and it was a good book. I did not have the depth a book requires for me to give it anything more than three stars, but that's not Mary Pope Osborne's purpose in this book, so I don't mean that as a criticism. What I had heard about Magic Tree House (and what I now can agree with having read the first book) is that the beauty of the series is how it pulls readers in, both boys and girls, with interesting plot and magical adventures that makes readers want to continue reading the other books in the series. At the same time, students are getting exposed to great content knowledge (in this book, dinosaurs, and in future books, which integrate knowledge about things like Ancient Egypt, outer space, and the Civil War, just to name a few). The last great thing about this series is how it increases in difficulty with each new book, and so a student can start out on the easiest (Book 1) and gradually move up to more difficult reads. As a teacher, I think this series rocks and I will continue to recommend it to students and use it in my classroom, as appropriate.
—Denise
This was my 6 year old son's first step into the world of chapter books. It has been a long time for me, as I no longer really read children's or young adult literature for my own amusement. We read it together, as he still occasionally needs help with the bigger words, proper nouns and rule breakers. I had forgotten how chapter books are prone to fragments masquerading as complete sentences. Other than that, though, we both enjoyed the experience.For my son, this was an amazing new adventure. At first he was put off by the fact that there wasn't a picture on every page, and that the pictures were not in color. However, he was still fascinated by the content and detail of the drawings and how well they illustrated what he just read. The story kept him engaged, and was just the right length not to lose his interest. It didn't hurt that the story involved the characters interacting with dinosaurs. We would sit down to read one chapter, and at the end of each chapter my son would declare "Just one more." When we were done with the entire book, he declared that he not only wanted to buy his own copy, but also the entire "Magic Tree House" series. That is the best kind of recommendation for a chapter book possible, I think. As the mom, I was thrilled to see my son so engaged in the book. The premise and subject matter is much like the type of books that attracted me as a child, and I look forward to exploring the series with him. As an avid reader and amateur writer, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of writing. I have been disappointed in books that reinforce poor grammar, such as the Junie B Jones series. In sharp contrast, the "Magic Tree House" restores my faith in children's literature by illustrating beautifully that you do not need to write in poor grammar for young readers to understand and enjoy a good story. The writing in "Dinosaurs Before Dark" was age appropriate, yet witty and clever. The story, though short, was filled with surprises and a couple clever plot twists. As a well seasoned reader, I of course knew that Jack would have to go back for his backpack, but the way he escapes back to the tree house was not at all predictable, unless one looks at the illustrations. All in all, this is an excellent book to be shared by parent and child. There is nothing quite like escorting a young reader into the beginning of a life of reading, and this is an excellent series to facilitate it. They are engaging and clever stories with an educational element. They are fun for the young reader, and pleasant for the parent. Some books for young readers are banal, predictable and boring for the parent. This is not one of those books. I look forward to sitting down with my son and diving into #2.
—Denise
I read “Dinosaurs Before Dark” by Mary Osborne. One day Jack and his younger sister, Annie, decided to go adventure in the wood near their home. They eventually came across magical tree house. Jack, having a fascination with dinosaurs, chose a book about them and wished he could see one in real life. They then got sent back in time, to the time of the dinosaurs, where they got to see all sorts of neat things and dinosaurs.There are two main characters in this book, Jack and Annie. Jack is the older of the two and loves dinosaurs, which is why he wanted to see one for real. Annie is younger than her brother and sometimes feels that Jack is a little overprotective.The setting of the book is a tree house in Frog Creek, PA in modern times. Then the tree house took them back to prehistoric times to see the dinosaurs.The theme of this book is imagination and adventure. If Jack and Annie weren't adventurous they would have never discovered the magic tree house and got to see all the dinosaurs. They also had to have a good imagination while they were back in prehistoric times to really enjoy it. I would recommend this book to young children. It is very easy to create a mental image from the book. It will also help children have a great imagination.
—Nick Handrich
