So I guess it was a hit! The paper is horrible, When I was little, these books were some of my first chapter books, I remember them as being huge at the time, but not dauntingly so, I do remember being proud and bragging that the first one was the biggest book Id ever read, Now Im older, and am ready to pass these stories on to the next generation, As a child, reading a chapter felt like an accomplishment, not because it was long or difficult, but because it was a chapter, Looking at the books now, the chapters are short only about two or three pages on average, I think the longest chapter in the first four books is something like six or eight pages, though that might be later on, The font is large, but not overwhelmingly so, Its small enough to give it a grown up feeling, while still being large enough for young eyes to focus on and track easily, There are pictures every couple pages, as well, Again, spread out enough to give a feeling of reading a real book, like an adult, while still acknowledging that the readers are still very much children, The stories are fast paced, which is perfect for keeping the attention early readers, especially when youre bridging them from picture books to chapter books, In the first ten pages of the first book, Jack and Annie are introduced and given basic characterization Jack is the older brother and an academic, his younger sister Annie is the adventurer.
The children discover a tree house full of books, and accidently end up in pre historic times with dinosaurs outside the window, The explore the area, take notes, and meet the big baddy, all within the first sprint of pages, Throughout the books, Jack has his handy dandy notebook that he fills with notes on his adventures, In the first book, he takes basic notes on each dinosaur or strange event that happens, This helps set up a foundation for learning how to take notes, and why they are useful, In the beginning, Jacks notes are short and simplistic, Friendly and Eats grass being good examples, Later on, his notes become slightly complex, though it takes several books for this to occur, Even then, its not a sudden jump its gradual, In later books I think starting in book two, but not really coming into play until book four Jack actually refers back to the notes hes taken so far and uses them to put together the pieces to a puzzle.
Jack also makes a habit of carrying the book they wished on in his backpack every time they go on an adventure, Any time the children encounter a new word, something new or strange, they open up the book in question and look up information, Rather than saying They flipped through the book until they found what they were looking for, the author
makes a point of saying how they found it, For example, showing Jack and Annie looking through the table of contents, or searching under K for knight, The author doesnt write a sermon on how to take notes or look up information remember, the stories are fast paced, Instead, she shows glimpses of the children doing this overtime until a clear pattern emerges on how to do these things, The stories are based around the children going someplace far away from home and encountering strange and new things they had never seen or heard about before, expanding their knowledge.
Theres also a high level of risk involved, When they go to Pompeii, for example, they need to get back to the tree house before the volcano explodes, These two elements paired with the fast pace of the stories provide a grand feeling of adventure, which is exactly what you want when trying to get kids hooked on reading books.
In addition to being fun, they also do a good job of sneaking in basic study skills, all while providing a basic foundation for learning about whatever time and place the children go to in whichever book.
In The first one, for example, they learn about dinosaurs, Definitely a well rounded series and a great starter set for transitioning kids into chapter books, Even if the books are a bit beyond your childs reading level at the moment, read the books to them anyway, Odds are that they will get hooked on the story, and when they are able to read them on their own, theyll already have a head start, If nothing else, they will still be learning while you read to them, even if they dont follow along with their eyes, Theres no way to lose, var hmenu document. getElementById"nav hamburger menu" hmenu, setAttribute"href", "javascript: void" window, navHamburgerMetricLogger function if window. ue window. ue. count var metricName "Navm:Hmenu:IconClickActionPending" window, ue. countmetricName, ue. countmetricNamewindow. Nav hmenu. addEventListener"click", window. navHamburgerMetricLogger window. Nav window. navmet. tmpnew Date. ca My grand daugter liked them very much, Great stories for children. Great books and myyear old loves them, A good length and bigger font size with images so likely good for younger ages as well, These are a wonderful way to get kids started studying historical eras and English, Love the illustrations to help younger readers, just wish there were and in colour like the Geronimo Stilton books! I bought this sat for myyear old granddaughter, and she absolutely loved it.
ABOUT MAGIC TREE HOUSE:
Widely regarded among parents, teachers, and librarians for its power to instill a passion for reading, Mary Pope Osbornes award winning,New York Times best selling Magic Tree House series is an international phenomenon and has sold thanmillion books worldwide since its debut in.
The books have been translated intodifferent languages in overinternational markets, All Magic Tree House books are available in print, as ebooks and Listening Library audio books, which are all narrated by Mary Pope Osborne, Visit WWW. MAGICTREEHOUSE. COM for information about the series, activities, and,
MARY POPE OSBORNE is an ardent advocate and supporter of childrens literacy, and the award winning author of thanbooks for children and young adults, including novels, retellings of mythology and folklore, picture books, biographies, and mysteries.
From, Ms. Osborne served as president of the Authors Guild, the countrys leading organization for published authors, She has traveled extensively in the U, S. and abroad, visiting schools and speaking on issues related to childrens literacy, She spoke at the UN regarding the importance of worldwide literacy and was profiled on NBCs Rock Center with Brian Williams for her continued efforts, Mary has donated over,books to underserved children across the country through her Gift of Books program, She resides in Connecticut. The creator of the Magic Tree House series, Ms, Osborne is also the coauthor of the companion Magic Tree House Fact Trackers series with her husband, WILL OSBORNE, and her sister, NATALIE POPE BOYCE,
Follow Mary on Twitter: Magic Tree House Classroom Adventures Program is a free, comprehensive set of online educational resources for teachers developed by Mary Pope Osborne as gift to teachers, to thank them for their enthusiastic support of the series.
Complete with free online resources including lesson plans, curriculum guides, and creative activities, the Classroom Adventures Program incorporates every book in the series, including the nonfiction Fact Tracker titles, enabling teachers to build upon students interest in Jack and Annies adventures, while simultaneously meeting core curriculum standards across a multitude of subjects.
Educators can learn at WWW, MTHCLASSROOMADVENTURES. ORG.