Best Children's Books: The Magic Treehouse

Written by: Danny Albers 

 

Growing up, I wasn’t the greatest reader, especially my early grade school years. So I clung to franchises that didn’t require a high reading level to complete. One of the very first books that I remember coming across in my adolescent years was the Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osbourne. “Night of the Ninjas” was my very first chapter book that I ever read. It had me hooked so I went down to the library at Frank C. Whitley Elementary and proceeded to read all 28 books. In every book, I was thrusted into a new world from past times. There is a mix of both a fictional and fantasy element and an educational and historical element in each book. 

The reader follows Jack and Annie, a young brother and sister who discover a massive tree house in the Frog Creek Woods behind their Pennsylvania home. This tree house is filled with books about historical times and worlds. Some examples are books on Dinosaurs, ancient Japan, Shakespearean England, the age of Vikings, American Revolutionary and Civil war time, and ancient egypt. They also get a first hand look at different animals, friendly, and not so friendly. These books are a portal to time travel, and no time passes when the two siblings travel in time. They are both polar opposites, Annie being personable and having a way with animals, and Jack being a bookworm problem solver. Together they go to these ancient places and solve problems for the people less advanced living in these times. For example, they convince George Washington to cross the Delaware. 

Why do they go on all these dangerous adventures? They are sent on missions by a woman named Morgan Le Fay, a librarian from the time of King Arthur who travels through time collecting books and information. She names Jack and Annie as master Librarians, and sends them on missions through time to collect magical items and rival the evil magic of Merlin. 

So why do I think you should get these books for your children? They basically are soft intros to 28 topics in world history. They have fun facts about stuff from dinosaurs to marine biology. You’d be stunned what knowledge follows kids in life, and these are 28 topics they are guaranteed to run into as they continue through their education. History was always my favorite subject, and I excelled at it in school. I credit a lot of that to movies, and series like these that I dove into when I was a kid. Where some children's stories have either a more serious message that they’re trying to pass on, Magic Tree House just teaches kids to have an active imagination while harmlessly exposing them to factual things about the life around them.