Magic Tree House Books

Transport to Adventure

• What: Magic Tree House Chapter Books
• When: 6 to 10 years
• Why: Fun, short chapters, familiar characters
• Where: Amazon

A friend gave us our first set of Magic Tree House Books by Mary Pope Osborne for my daughter’s birthday because her son, at the same age, loved them so much. My daughter also found them compelling, and we’ve reverted to checking out new books from the library to avoid total book overload at home.

These chapter books have been around for more than 25 years for good reason. This series features Jack and his younger sister Annie, who go on loads of adventures courtesy of a magic treehouse they discover in the woods. In the first four books alone, they travel through time and distance to meet dinosaurs, knights, mummies, and pirates.

The first 28 books work well for beginning readers, with shorter chapters and easier reading. The next books add additional characters and have longer chapters for more developed readers, meaning the books advance well with your child’s reading skills. Though the books are designed for beginning readers, you can start anytime with interested children regardless of literacy level. Almost every chapter has at least one illustration to help make the transition from picture books to chapter books.

You can buy the first four books on Amazon, as well as books 5-8, books 9-12, books 13-16, books 17-20, and books 21-24 in boxed sets. If you know your kids love them and you have the room, you can also buy the first 28 book collection in one set, though we’ve switched to our local library for sourcing rather than buying more.

With 54 titles to choose from in the series, you can find a wide range of specific interests to dive into deeper. The second half of the series, which has been renumbered (so you might find older copies with lower numbers of the Merlin Missions books) offers longer chapters and thicker books for more adventure. If your child does love the characters, it will take even the fastest reader quite some time to finish the entire series.