On a Tuesday, Jack and Annie headed to the tree house, because that is what Morgan’s had said to do. The two got dressed quickly and headed out the door without even eating breakfast. Inside the tree house was another note. It said that Camelot is in trouble and the two of them need to find four special kinds of writing for Morgan’s library. Those four kinds of writing needed to be something to follow, something to send, something to learn, and something to learn. Jack picked up a list from the Civil War as the something to follow. Annie has the second kind of writing the something to send when she picks up a letter from the Revolutionary War. The third is something to learn and they choose a book titled Life on the Prairie. As he is pointing at a picture in the book, Jack says he wishes he could go there and everything becomes very still. Jack and Annie open there eyes and he is wearing pants with suspenders and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Annie is wearing a long dress and a sunbonnet. The tree house has landed in a small grove of trees near a creek. There is a train in the distance and Jack reads that in the 1870s steam engines carried people across the Kansas prairie. In his notebook, he writes 1870s- trains cross Kansas. The two get going and find a picture of a wagon train and read aloud. He then wrote in his notebook covered wagons- prairie schooners. Annie wanted to get closer to the wagon train, but it was gone before they could catch up to it. They see a rusty pipe sticking up from the top of a small hill. It was a building with a wooden roof and read that the building was a sod house which was made from blocks of earth. He continued reading and the topic changed to tornadoes or twisters. He said that the house was what they were looking for it is something to learn. The door opens and it turns out the building is actually a school. Jack and Annie introduce themselves to the teacher Mrs. Neely. She invites them to join the class., but the class only consisted of three other children. The class begins with Reading and Jack begins reading out a book and is instructed to pass the book to Jeb so he can read. Jeb is not a good reader and Jack tries to help him but it makes Jeb mad. At lunch everyone has to eat quickly because there is a bad storm coming. The children share their lunch with Annie and Jack. Jack offers some to Jeb, but he says he is not hungry and begins picking on Jack. Annie calls Jeb a bully. After lunch, the children returned to class and soon after returning they heard a loud rumble of thunder and Mrs. Neely looked outside and there were hailstones falling from the sky. Annie blurts out that this is something to learn. Jack and Annie tell everyone that they have to leave and say their goodbyes. When they get outside the sky is a weird color. In the distance, a twister dropped from the sky and was making its way across the prairie. Jack was ready to go, but Annie insisted they help Mrs. Neely and the children. The pair went back to the dugout but could not open the door until it blew off of the hinges. Mrs. Neely and the children were in the corner of the room. Annie and Jack yelled for everyone to get into the cellar. Annie and Jack could not pull the cellar door open, but suddenly Jeb began trying and lifted the door open. Once the storm cleared Jeb looked outside and yelled all clear. Mrs. Neely thanked Jack and Annie for saving their lives. Jeb asks how they knew about the cellar and Jack shows him his book. Jeb says he wants to learn to read and thanks them for helping them. Annie and Jack went back to the tree house and got out their book of Pennsylvania and she said I wish I could go there. When they return home, they see a note from Morgan that says for them to come back on Wednesday.
“Twister on Tuesday” was a book about Annie and Jack who are brother and sister. In this book they use their treehouse to transport to other places. This Tuesday morning when they entered the tree house they traveled out West. When they were there they explored many things. They learned and took many notes on new things they picked up and didn’t know before. On the Great Plains they found out that houses were often made of sod bricks because there weren’t many trees. They also found out that the wagons people used to travel across the plains were often referred to as “prairie schooners” because the white coverings on the wagons made them look like sailing ships. While they were there they also found a school house. They eventually made friends with the other three children that attended this school. This made it hard for them to return to the tree house. The main characters of “Twister on Tuesday” are Annie and Jack. They are brother and sister and use their magic tree house to travel to other places. Other characters of this book are Miss Neely, Jeb, Will and Kate. Miss Neely is the teacher of the sod school house that Annie and Jack find on their adventure. Will and Kate are brother and sister and are students at the school house. Jeb is the oldest of the three students. He his harder to get along with and has not had as much schooling as the other students. The main setting of “Twister on Tuesday” is the Great Plains. The kids travel to the Great Plains through their tree house and stay there for most of the book. While they are in the Great Plains they do spend some time in a school house they find. I do not think that there is a specific time frame that the book takes place in. The other setting of this book is at Annie and Jack’s home, where the book starts out at. I think that the main theme the author portrayed through this book is never lose your imagination. There is a time to be serious and a time for fun. No matter how old you are, you can always have fun. This book has taught me that when I am around younger kids like my cousins or siblings, I can loosen up and let go a little bit. If you are always up tight and high strung about things, you may not be the most pleasant to be around. The message this book sends to me is to never lose the little kid inside of you. I would recommend this book to an elementary or middle school age. I think that this age of kids could relate to this book the best. I thought that this book was an interesting read and a sent a good message.
What do You think about Twister On Tuesday (2010)?
My 6 yr old is becoming a voracious reader and his teacher recommended this series so I picked up a few from the library. My son loves it. Magic and fun and adventure rolled into a chapter book that's easy to read, yet challenging enough that he's not bored. Many of these are educational as well, focusing on a particular point in history such as a president's reign, or a location, like Ireland in this one, which goes really well with his geography and history lessons. He's loving it, and already has said these are the books he wants to read for the challenge. Overall a great step into chapter books for the advanced reader.
—midnightfaerie
This story takes us to the pioneer times in Kansas. Reading about children walking for 2-5+ miles to be educated really put things into perspective. Nowadays, kids ditch school and drop out or just down right hate school without even realizing what a privilege it is. Though some school systems (mainly high school and above) can be screwed up, kids use to WANT to learn and even now, in some countries it is a privilege few can afford. Our kids should be grateful. Jack and Annie have a chance to visit a one room school and save them with the information they read in a book. I learned about dangers I hadn't known pioneers had to deal with, such as grasshopper attacks! And I loved how, though the kid was mean, Jack did everyone on his part to befriend a grouchy boy. If more kids sucked it up and showed some kindness, there would be lot less fights in this world. It's hard to be nice to mean kids, people have their pride, but it can make a huge difference in people's lives sometimes and teach them a lesson. Jack's knowledge also encouraged the boy to keep learning to read. Reading as we all know, not only teaches us things, but takes us on adventures of all sorts :)
—Rubi
Tornado on Tuesday is a great book. I think you will like it if you like advantures. Tornado on Tuesday is about Jack and Annie, the main characters, go to a school and they go and theres a big mean boy sitting in the back and two nice little kids sitting in the front. The teacher is very young. So they go work a little Jack and the mean boy fight a lot. then they go out to the grass to eat some lunch. It looked like a storm was about to apper and they sky got dark! So after they got inside they did a little work then Jack and his sister Annie had to go. They reached the tree house. Soon after they got home a storm appered so they ran like the wind back to the school so they could show the school about the cellar, a place where you can go to be safe during awful weather. Jack and Annhie tryed to get in the school but it was locked so they had to knock hard but they did'nt answer so they pushed on the door and it fell off they ran to the xcellar and got in it and they were safe and after the storm they went back home and everything was ok. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes series and easy to read.
—Macey Schoenick
