I never read the The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne, which is odd because based on the description of the series, these books would’ve been and should’ve been right up my alley. My students talked up the books as some of their childhood favorites so I jotted the title down in one of my notebooks two years ago, then promptly forgot about the missive.
Recently, my eldest daughter, Erp (and here, I’m taking a figurative page out of Patrick Rothfuss’ book in not using my children’s real names on the internet) started listening to audiobooks during her “QUIET TIME.”
Quiet time has of course replaced nap time, as she decided quite a while ago that she and naps were parting ways, but Audrey and I still felt that she should have a down time of sorts in the afternoon, especially because of her early rising (in the 5:00-6:00 hour).
Erp loves A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh and Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad but due to their popularity in our library system those are hard to come by digitally. So I started snagging what I could on CD. She’s listened to Danny the Champion of the World and Ramona and Beezus. We tried Matilda, but she found Matilda’s father, Mr. Wormwood, to be a bit mean and scary.
Enter The Magic Treehouse. I found the first four books on CD and she’s been hooked. Every time she listens, she tells us about the characters and the adventures they had (“Hey Dada, they went to Egypt and saw the pyramids”). Audrey told me today that after an hour had elapsed, she went in to tell Erp her quiet time was over, but she didn’t want it to end, requesting to spend more time listening to the story. She was in there for another hour. I’m excited over how much she loves stories and now I’m even more intrigued about this series. I must investigate further.
Just keep reading.
Keep telling stories.
Be on the lookout for new stories.
Huzzah!
-Gus
Ryan L. Purdy 