Kali Renyer Childrens Literature December 1, 2013 Melissa Williamson

Author Study

Mary Pope Osborne was born May 20, 1949 in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Her father, William Pope was a colonel in the United States army which caused the family to travel a lot. The family lived in Austria, Florida, Oklahoma and four different army bases. She credits her love for adventure and lifelong peripatetic tendencies to her childhood. Mary Pope Osborne is a very adventurous woman. She loved traveling and while on some on her vacations she faced near death experiences such as earthquakes in Afghanistan, riots in Kabul, and blood poisoning in Katmandu. From 1993 to 1997, Osborne served as the 27th president of the Authors Guild, the oldest organization for writers in the United States. In 2013 she received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Osborne is a very intriguing person that has done many things throughout her life. Before she became an author she had many jobs like a bartender, window dresser, medical assistant, and even taught acting classes. She could not stay in one place for too long as she loved adventure and finding new places. Osbornes first book was published in 1982 and was called Run, Run, As Fast As You Can, was a semi-autobiographical story of a young girl growing up in a military family and the struggles she faced as a teenager. The book was published by Random

House's Children's Book imprint. After several other books, mostly targeted to the youth audience, the publisher suggested to Osborne that she write a series. She spent the next year formulating the idea to create the series. Mary Pope Osborne created the first series in the book in 1992. The first book in the series was Dinosaurs Before Dark. The main protagonists in the story are a nine year old boy, Jack and a seven year old girl, Annie. These children are playing in the woods one day and they find a tree house filled with books. When they go into the Tree House they find a book about Dinosaurs and when Annie points to a certain page and wishes she was there the house began to spin and they land in the time of the book. All of Mary Pope Osbornes books are magical and adventurous and she relates it back to the many places that she has lived in her life. While living in Austria she had a clear view of a castle, and when she moved farther north she had a moat surrounding her house. Due to her creative mind and the many places that she saw growing up she created a wonderful series of books for ages 5-10. As an author Osborne has received many awards for her books like Childrens Choice Selection for Run, Run as Fast as You Can, Children's Book of the Year List for Last One Home, Orbis Pictus Honor Award for One World, Many Religions, and Children's Choice Award for Dolphins at Daybreak & Midnight on the Moon. She has always gotten great reviews from the press for her books. Mary Pope Osborne provides nicely paced excitement for young readers, and theres just enough information mixed in so that children will take away some historical fact along with a sense of accomplishment at having completed a chapter book. was said by Childrens Literature on the Magic Tree House series. School Library Journal on Christmas in

Camelot said, A rousing adventure tale filled with dancing fairies, white stags, and hideous beasts. Mary Pope Osborne has sold over one hundred million copies of books and her Magic Tree House series has been translated into thirty different languages. There is over fifty books in the series and the books mature as the series goes on. These beginning chapter books range from many different genres like historical fiction, mystery, adventure, and fantasy. The books always start when the children enter the Tree House, and no matter which place they visit in the world the Tree House will always keep the same form. The writing style of Mary Pop Osborne includes many cliffhangers and adventurous plot lines. Osborne connects all the different books in the series together and it is interesting to read and find all on the connections. In 2000, the first two Magic Tree House Research Guides came out, co-written by Mary Pope Osborne and her husband, Will Osborne. These nonfiction compilations to the Magic Tree House books give readers a fun and easy way to find out more about their favorite places, time periods, and subjects. After the first eight titles, Mary's sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, came on board to coauthor with Mary. Mary Pope Osborne is also an advocate for child reading literacy. She travels across the country to libraries and holds speeches to make sure that children are reading. In October she held her first annual Magic Tree House Buddies Week. "I'm thrilled to kick off the first annual Magic Tree House Reading Buddies Week," says Osborne during an interview with PR NewsWire. "Not only does the buddy reading model help support children's reading efforts, but it also helps them gain self-confidence and a mentor to encourage their reading development." The event included a kick-off

speech from Mary Pope Osborne and was concluded by reading circles and books talks. Every child that attended the even received the first book in the series and got to take it home. Osborne is a loving women that is passionate about her job. She wants to make sure every child finds the love of reading that she found at such a young age. The way she writes captures the minds of the young readers and keeps them engaged throughout the entire story. Osborne said, Reading is the basic springboard for learning. And books provide the liftoff. They are the great equalizer, opening up new worlds to everyone."

Osborne, Mary Pope. Murdocca, Sal. Dinosaurs Before Dark. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 1992. 80 pages. Jack and Annie decide to go for a walk in the woods when they came across a mysterious tree. They decide to enter the treehouse and saw it filled with many books. Jack picks up a book with dinosaurs on the cover and wishes that he could see a dinosaur for real. The book then transports the siblings to the land of the dinosaurs, thousands of years ago. The two encounter a flying dinosaur and Annie gives him the name Henry. Annie and Jack decide to venture around dinosaur land and see all the many creatures. They run into a huge tyrannosaur and they run back to the tree house hoping they can get away from this scary creature. Once they arrive Jack realizes that he left his backpack behind in the valley of the anatosauruses. Jack decides to be brave and run back into the treacherous land and retrieve the book. He gets stuck in a path with the T-rex but Henry saves the day. Jack hops on his back and flies him back to the tree house where they find a book about Pennsylvania where he wishes to go back. The tree house returns the two siblings home safely and they both agree not to say a word as to what just happened but to go back to the tree house the next day. Jack later finds a medallion with the shape of an M on it. He is confused as to why this showed up in the book but he tells his sister about it. They decide to create a notebook about everything they saw during their adventure. They do not understand how they got to the land of the dinosaurs but they want to investigate and figure out this treehouse and all the wild things it entails. The lesson that can be taught from this book is imagination. The kids dreamed of going somewhere and they did. An assignment you can do with your students is have them dream their own type of world. Make the students include pictures and writing about their special land. This allows the students to use their imagination without any rules or guidelines which will bring the best out of them. On the website http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/book-magictreehousedinosaursbeforedark.html. They have chapter summary questions for each of the chapters in the book. These questions include comprehension questions like who, what, where, when, and why, and how the characters act to specific situations. As a teacher you can break down the chapters into each individual day and have a summary following each of the chapters. On this website there is also a lot of literary circles group projects where the students can create their own cover in the book or make predictions for what is about to happen in the story. After each day that the chapter is read it would be ideal to review the previous chapters and answer any of the questions that the student has. Since this story is about Dinosaurs you could tie this lesson to a history unit about Dinosaurs and compare and contrast between each subject.

Osborne, Mary Pope. Murdocca, Sal. The Knight at Dawn. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 1993. 67 pages. Jack, a young boy, wakes up early one morning, thinking about the previous day when he and his younger sister, Annie, took a magical trip to the Cretaceous period, 65

million years ago, and met real dinosaurs. They are really confused if this truly happened or if it was a dream because it was so magical. Jack looked over his notebook and realized that they really did travel through time and saw dinosaurs. Annie reminds him to include a note about the mysterious medallion they found, marked with the letter M. They decide to keep a notebook together so that they can look over the adventure they had and try and figure out what happened. Annie suggests that they take another trip to the tree house, and she brings along a flashlight. In the tree house, Annie finds a book about castles and turns to a page picturing a knight on a horse. Before Jack can warn her, she puts a finger on the picture and wishes that they could meet a knight in shining armor. The tree house starts to spin and lands in front of a castle. Jack wants to go home because he knows all the danger that may come from another exploration but Annie climbs down the ladder to explore and Jack knows that he has to go along with her to make sure she is safe. Jack finds information about knights in the book from the tree house and begins taking notes. Before Jack can stop her, Annie goes to the castle to explore in it. Jack takes notes about the things he reads and observes, including the fact that feasts sometimes include peacocks for dinner, crocodiles sometimes swim in a castle's moat and a knight's helmet can weigh up to 40 pounds. The siblings are afraid that they may be caught so they hid in a dark room filled with armor and large weapons. Jack accidentally makes a noise and the three guards arrest him and Annie. The guards threaten to hang the children the next day and they think it is over. Annie retrieves her flashlight from her backpack and shines a light in their faces, telling them it is a magic wand. The guards are so surprised that they let the children go. Using a map of the castle as their guide, they make their way to the castle's wall as their flashlight dims. Annie and Jack climb over the castle wall and swim across the moat where they encounter a mysterious knight on a horse. He lifts the children into the saddle and takes them back to the tree house. Annie finds their book about Pennsylvania. When she points to the picture of their forest by their house and the tree house begins to spin, taking them home. Jack finds a leather bookmark in his backpack marked with the letter M. He compares it to the gold medallion he found in the Cretaceous period and notes that the lettering is the same. The children are now starting to figure out how the Tree House works and how the books can take them to a magical place and bring them home. Jack makes sure that he collects all of his notes so they can see why they keep finding an M in strange places. A lesson that you can do with the students is tie back to a history lesson. On the http://mthclassroomadventures.org/index.php?r=site/lessonplans webpage there is many different activities you can do with the book. A story mapping worksheet is to be done when the class finishes reading the book. The map includes filling in the details of the main events, characters, and the story line. It would be a good idea to go over each chapter is read to make sure the students knows what it happening in the book and ask any questions to clear up confusion. The Magic Tree House website is very useful because it has every book in the series and worksheets to assess comprehension. Summary for Books reviews #3 and #4 from Goodreads.com Osborne, Mary Pope. Murdocca, Sal. Mummies in the Morning. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 1993. 70 pages.

Jack and Annie go back to Ancient Egypt and get lost in a pyramid. They find a ghost queen inside. She asks Jack and Annie to help her find the Book of the dead so that she can go to the afterlife. Jack and Annie try to decode a message on the nearby wall for the ghost queen and are successful. They follow the ghost down the hallway, up some stairs, and into a cold, drafty room. Here the ghost disappears. They find a boat on the other side of the room and grab a jar out of it. Then they grab a scroll out of the jar. It is the Book of the Dead. They walk through a door and into a room with only a long golden box in it. The kids look into the box and are stunned to see a real mummy. Annie runs off in disgust. Jack sets the Book of the Dead on the box and backs out of the room. He continues out the boat room and down the stairs. He turns into the hallway and tries to find his sister. He hears her voice, but starts walking in the wrong direction. He turns and heads in the other direction. He walks back up the stairs and into the room with the boat. He notices an open door that he didn't notice before. He enters the room, which is at the top of a staircase exactly like the room he had just come up. He walks down the stairs and enters a hallway that also looks like the previous one. Jack finds Annie, who had gotten lost, and they turn to go back up the stairs. Just as they do, the doors close and the torches go out. They walk down the hallway looking for secret doors, but instead end up right back where they started. They hear a meow and see the black cat from before. They follow it all the way to the outside of the pyramid. The cat then runs off and disappears into the waves of heat in the distance. The kids go back to the tree house and grab the Pennsylvania book. Jack turns and sees the queen in her boat floating through the air on her way to the Afterlife. Then Jack points to the book and wishes them home. When they got back, they organized the books in the tree house. While doing this, they discover an "M" in the floor. Jack touched the M and felt a tingling in his body. Leaves started to blow. The kids leave the tree house and go home. When they arrive, their mom is making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The lesson that can be tied to this book is the various uses of symbolism. The books before this one have all included some type of M in them so it would be a good idea to have a class discussion as to why they think the author put it in every book. Symbolism is used a lot throughout stories and the better understanding that a student has of the concept the better their comprehension will be. Daily reading journal would be useful in the series because it allows the students to be able to go back to remember what they read and what they were feeling after each chapter. On the Ed Helper website there is various worksheets that you can use to assess a students comprehension. The website page is http://edhelper.com/books/Mummies_in_the_Morning_Magic_Tree_House.htm The various worksheets on this page include daily journals, vocabulary review, and plot line activites. This book can be tied to a historical unit about mummies to give the students a better idea of the setting and the different events that take place in this era. Osborne, Mary Pope. Murdocca, Sal. Hour of the Olympics. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 1995. 70 pages. Jack and Annie travel to Ancient Greece to the city of Olympia. They are sent by Morgan to retrieve a specific scroll. While in Olympia, they meet an elder gentleman named Plato, a famous philosopher. He informs them that the Olympics are going on, but Annie can't attend it because she is a girl, and girls are not allowed. He also

introduces them to a mysterious woman who has written a poem. Annie asks her why she has signed her name as Anonymous. The woman informs Annie that if she were to write her real name, the poem would not be accepted because she is a female. Later, when the Olympics start, Jack and Plato attend the sporting event. Jack notices that there is a short guard who suddenly waves to him. Jack realizes that Annie has snuck into the Olympics in disguise. All is going well until Annie forgets herself and takes off her helmet to cheer on the competitors. The last thing Jack sees is Annie being dragged away by the authorities. The book would be better comprehended if you read it to your class during the Olympics in the Winter or Spring. It would be an interesting comparison that you could make daily between the books and the actual games happening present day. The lesson that can be taught to the students is that they can do whatever they set their mind too no matter what their gender is. A fun assignment that you can have your students do is have the girls take on male roles like a mechanic or plumber, and the boys can take on women roles like a house wife or secretary. The assignment will give all the students an appreciation for what everyone does in the world and may strict an interest in someone to follow the career path. There is many assignments on the Magic Tree House web page. An interesting unit they tied this book to is math and the concept of Greek prefixes like hepta, octa, and tri. You can relate this to the story because all of these words came from ancient Greece, where the Olympic Games were held. The Magic Tree House series has a website called Adventure Program: http://www.magictreehouse.com/# There is different tabs of the website to locate worksheets and activities are lessons plans, curriculum keys, different kids, and reading levels. This is a great website for teachers even if they are not reading the series to their student because the activities to assess the entire book can be switched for other stories, even picture books. The Scholastic website http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collection/mary-pope-osborne-author-study has many different ideas for teachers to use while reading the Magic Tree House books. There is different tabs on the website like student activities, resources, and strategies and ideas. Mary Pope Osborne is a well-known author and her books are known around the country and world so there is a lot of websites that can be useful while reading the books to your classroom.

Annotated Bibliography for Mary Pope Osborne

Osborne, Mary Pope. Run, Run, as Fast as You Can. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 1982. 90 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Best Wishes Joe Brady. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 1985. 100 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Howell, Troy, Illustrator. Favorite Greek Myths. New York. Scholastic Trade Publishers. 1988. 81 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Series of Magic Tree House Books 1-50. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 1992. 70 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Molly and the Prince. New York. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 1994. 40 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. My America Series, Books 1-15. New York. Scholastic Book Publishers. 2000. 112 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Howell, Troy, Illustrator. Favorite Norse Myths. New York. Scholastic Trade Publishers. 2000. 96 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Favorite Medieval Times. New York. Scholastic Paper books. 2002. 96 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. King Arthur and the Knights at the Round Table. New York. Scholastic Book Publishers. 2002. 160 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Potter, Giselle, Illustrator. Kate and the Beanstalk. New York. Aladdin Publishers. 2005. 40 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. The Final Battle. New York. Hyperion Books. 2005. 112 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. The Mysteries of Spider Kane. New York. Yearling Publishers. 2006. 240 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Pompeii: Lost and Found. New York. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2006. 40 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Pompeii: Haunted Waters. New York. Candlewick Publishers. 2006. 160 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Penguins and Antartica. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 2008. 119 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. The Random House Books of Bible Stories. New York. Random House Books for Young Readers. 2009. 176 pages.

Osborne, Mary Pope. One World, Many Religions; The Way We Worship. New York. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2009. 176 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Tales from the Odyssey, Part One. New York. Hyperion Books. 2010. 288 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Tales from the Odyssey, Part Two. New York. Hyperion Books. 2010. 304 pages. Osborne, Mary Pope. Gallagher, Saelig, Illustrator. Moonhorse. New York. Dragonfly Books. 2010. 288 pages.

Mary Pope Osborne has written over one hundred books. The Magic Tree House series has over fifty books in them and the My America Series has over fifteen books within them. She is a well-known author that has written many different genres of books.

Works Cited: Glitterbug, S. (2006). Author chat with Mary pope Osborne. Retrieved from http://www.nypl.org/author-chat-mary-pope-osborne Johnson, K. (2006). Fun facts about Mary pope Osborne. Retrieved from http://www.angelfire.com/planet/bookreview/MPOfunfacts.html Osborne, M. P. (2013). Mary Pope Osborne. Retrieved from http://marypopeosborne.com/ Osborne, M. P. (2013). Magic tree house. Retrieved from http://www.magictreehouse.com/ Random House, L. (2010, June 20). Retrieved from http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/author/osborne-mary-pope/ Smith, A. (2013, February 26). All about Mary Pope Osborne. Retrieved from http://marypopeosbornelled.blogspot.com/2013/02/all-about-mary-pope-osborne.html