I remember breathing in the scent of worn out paper while my 7-year-old self browsed through my local library’s crowded bookshelves. My feet would lightly tap the dark blue carpet as I impatiently scanned past different book titles: “Harry Potter and the …,” “Junie B. Jones,” “Ramona and Beezus.” But there was always one book series that’d catch my eye: “The Magic Tree House.”
“The Magic Tree House” series is written by Mary Pope Osborne, 73, and is still adding volumes to the popular franchise. The series is the No. 1 New York Times Bestselling children’s historical fantasy chapter book series of all time, with the first book “Dinosaurs Before Dark,” published in 1992. Currently, there are 37 books in the series, which all revolve around two siblings, Jack and Annie, as they discover a tree house filled with books that magically whisk them away into adventures taking place during the historical past, from the age of the dinosaurs to the ancient Greek Olympic Games and the Wild West of the 1880s.
My younger self’s obsession with the series started when I read, “Mummies in the Morning,” where Jack and Annie used a book of Egypt to journey through their third adventure with the magic tree house. Throughout the book, the siblings helped a ghost queen find a volume of magic spells to help her travel to the afterlife. The book details historical events, cultures and traditions such as the Egyptian royal funeral processions, a mummy wrapping process and treasures buried inside ancient tombs.
I remember experiencing every scene as if I was one of the characters, whether it be feeling the rush of adrenaline when the tree house spun Jack and Annie into a sandy Egypt or going through the same horror the siblings felt when encountering an unbandaged mummy with protruding bones, rotting flesh and empty eye sockets. With each historical event, the book teaches educational facts such as the traditional preservation of mummies with salt and oil.
One of my favorite aspects about the series is that regardless of whatever dangers they may encounter through their adventures, Jack and Annie always make it home safely to the magic tree house, filling me with an immense sense of comfort and satisfaction.
The “Magic Tree House” is a series that lets you fall in love with reading. With almost 40 “Magic Tree House” books published, there are a plethora of historical and magical events to choose from. Without a doubt, they will always leave young readers hungry for another adventure in another time.
