87 Fun Facts About Magic Tree House

Which Magic Tree House book opened the whole series, with a Pteranodon rescuing Jack and Annie from a T. rex?

Dinosaurs Before Dark came out in July 1992 and planted the series' first puzzle: a gold medallion marked with the letter M that Jack finds in the Cretaceous.

The Magic Tree House stands in the woods of which made-up Pennsylvania town, where Jack and Annie live?

Frog Creek, Pennsylvania is invented, but the tree house was inspired by a real one Osborne and her husband spotted on a walk in the Pennsylvania woods.

In which Magic Tree House book do Caribbean buccaneers lead Jack and Annie to the identity of the mysterious 'M'?

Pirates Past Noon ends with 'M' revealed as Morgan le Fay, the enchantress from King Arthur's court who owns the tree house. It is book four and closes the opening story arc.

Magic Tree House Fact Trackers, the non-fiction companions to the stories, originally carried what name?

Research Guides was the first name for the Fact Trackers, written so readers could dig deeper into the real topics behind each story; the first two were paired with the first two adventures.

Kathleen, the apprentice who joins Jack and Annie on several Merlin Missions, is what kind of magical creature?

A selkie is a seal who can take human form, and Kathleen first appears in Summer of the Sea Serpent, helping the kids turn into seals for an underwater quest.

By its 25th anniversary in 2017, about how many Magic Tree House books had been sold worldwide?

134 million copies had sold by 2017, and Osborne has also given hundreds of thousands of the books away to underserved schools through the charity First Book.

Magic Tree House: The Musical, which premiered in 2007, is adapted from which book, the first Merlin Mission?

Christmas in Camelot became a stage musical scripted by Will Osborne with composer Randy Courts; Mary Pope Osborne hoped it would draw adults as well as kids, as The Lion King does.

A Big Day for Baseball, which restarted the main Magic Tree House series, shows which player's Major League debut?

Jackie Robinson's 1947 debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers is the big day, and Jack and Annie expect to play but end up working the game as batboys.

In which Magic Tree House book do Jack and Annie land in Elizabethan England and meet William Shakespeare?

Stage Fright on a Summer Night puts Jack and Annie on stage in A Midsummer Night's Dream when Shakespeare has trouble with some of his actors.

Mary Pope Osborne co-writes the Magic Tree House Fact Trackers with her husband Will and which other relative?

Her sister Natalie Pope Boyce co-writes the Fact Trackers, which exist, Osborne says, because kids liked the facts in the stories so much.

Which illustrator drew the original Magic Tree House books for nearly 25 years, until handing over in 2016?

Sal Murdocca gave Jack his red glasses and Annie her double braids; Night of the Ninth Dragon in 2016 was his last book before AG Ford took over the art.

In which Magic Tree House book do Jack and Annie search Pompeii for a lost story before the city is buried?

Vacation Under the Volcano has the kids racing to find an ancient library before ash buries it, and the lost story they carry out is a tale of Hercules.

Day of the Dragon King drops Jack and Annie into a book burning 2,000 years ago in which country?

China's Dragon King was the real emperor Qin, and the kids' mission is to rescue one story before his book burning destroys it.

Civil War on Sunday has Jack and Annie helping which nurse, known as the Angel of the Battlefield?

Clara Barton, who later founded the American Red Cross, has the kids helping wounded soldiers, on a trip to fetch the first of four special writings Morgan has asked for.

In Revolutionary War on Wednesday, Jack and Annie cross the icy Delaware River alongside which general?

George Washington is doubting his surprise attack as the storm worsens, and the kids end up in his boat, helping to keep the crossing on track.

Earthquake in the Early Morning drops Jack and Annie into which city's famous 1906 disaster?

San Francisco's 1906 quake is the setting, and the hopeful message the kids bring back from it is used to inspire a despairing King Arthur.

Thanksgiving on Thursday seats Jack and Annie at the 1621 Plymouth feast with the Pilgrims and which Native people?

Wampanoag guests join the Pilgrims' 1621 feast, and Jack and Annie are asked to help prepare it despite knowing nothing about cooking or clamming the Pilgrim way.

Which Magic Tree House book closed the original 28-book run?

High Tide in Hawaii came out in 2003, and the numbered main series then paused for 14 years until A Big Day for Baseball arrived in 2017.

In Tonight on the Titanic, Jack and Annie are helped by Teddy, a young magician stuck in the form of which animal?

A dog is what Teddy became after one of his own spells backfired, and the kids spend four books collecting gifts to make him human again.

Which mouse rides along while Jack and Annie hunt four magical objects to free Morgan from a spell?

Peanut turns out to be Morgan herself, changed into a mouse by the spell, who had been travelling with the kids and guiding them all along.

In Afternoon on the Amazon, which fruit is the second magical object Jack and Annie must find in the rainforest?

A mango is handed over by the monkey that has been trailing Jack and Annie through the rain forest, past killer ants and vampire bats.

In Dragon of the Red Dawn, Jack and Annie seek the first secret of happiness with which haiku poet?

Matsuo Bashō hosts the kids for a day because Merlin has sunk into a deep sadness, and the four secrets of happiness are meant to cure him.

Monday with a Mad Genius has Jack and Annie spending a whole day in Italy helping which Renaissance figure?

Leonardo da Vinci tests his flying machine and crashes, leaving him downcast until Annie's magic gives them all bird wings and they fly.

In a Magic Tree House Merlin Mission, Jack and Annie visit 18th-century Austria to help which composer?

Mozart is inspired to write The Magic Flute after hearing the kids play their own magic flute to round up escaped palace-zoo animals.

A Good Night for Ghosts takes Jack and Annie to New Orleans, where they meet which jazz legend as a boy?

Louis Armstrong's story later became A Night in New Orleans, a musical with a live jazz band co-written by composer Allen Toussaint.

Which Victorian novelist gets Jack and Annie out of trouble with the police in a Magic Tree House story?

Charles Dickens despairs of his writing, so the kids call up three ghosts to change his mind, in a story that plays on his own A Christmas Carol.

Leprechaun in Late Winter has Jack and Annie cheering up an Irish girl who becomes which Abbey Theatre co-founder?

Lady Gregory is young Augusta here, and the kids' visit inspires her to share Ireland's old legends and folktales with the world and, later, to start a theatre.

Stallion by Starlight has Jack and Annie in ancient Macedonia meeting which future conqueror and his horse Bucephalus?

Alexander the Great, in Plutarch's telling, won Bucephalus as a boy by taming a horse nobody else could mount; the book meets him while he is still young.

High Time for Heroes sends Jack and Annie to Egypt to learn a secret of greatness from which nursing pioneer?

Florence Nightingale is met in Egypt in 1850, before she has become a nurse at all, which leaves the kids wondering whether Merlin sent them to the wrong person.

In Soccer on Sunday, Jack and Annie visit the 1970 World Cup in Mexico to ask which player about greatness?

Pelé is the player the kids are sure will share the secret, but first they must work out how to reach him in a crowd of 100,000 fans.

Balto of the Blue Dawn takes Jack and Annie to the 1925 serum run, a race to save which Alaskan town?

Nome was hit by diphtheria in 1925, so relays of sled dogs rushed medicine across Alaska; Jack and Annie help Balto, the husky on the final leg.

Night of the New Magicians sends Jack and Annie to which city's 1889 world's fair to protect four famous inventors?

Paris's 'magicians' are the inventors Bell, Pasteur, Edison and Eiffel, and the evil sorcerer supposedly threatening them turns out not to exist.

Carnival at Candlelight has Jack and Annie saving which city from a flood?

Venice is Merlin's first test of whether the kids can use magic wisely, and they go armed with a book of magic rhymes and his mysterious instructions.

Which free Magic Tree House program did Osborne start for the 20th anniversary to help kids read at grade level?

Classroom Adventures, started in 2012, gives teachers free online resources and lets Title 1 schools apply for free books, hundreds of thousands of which have been donated.

In Blizzard of the Blue Moon, Jack and Annie must help which enchanted creature in Depression-era New York City?

Unicorn rescue is complicated by two rival sorcerers-in-training, Balor and Grinda, and this is the book where the kids gain a magic wand of their own.

In Dark Day in the Deep Sea, which 1870s ship full of scientists rescues Jack and Annie, then hunts a sea monster?

HMS Challenger was a real survey ship, and the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the ocean, is named after it because its crew first sounded that trench in 1875.

Danger in the Darkest Hour, the lone Super Edition, puts Jack and Annie behind enemy lines just before which event?

D-Day is about to begin when the kids are dropped behind enemy lines to rescue Kathleen, and they must rely on their own skills rather than magic.

In Summer of the Sea Serpent, which object must Jack and Annie fetch for Merlin before the summer solstice ends?

The Sword of Light turns out to be Excalibur itself, fetched from long ago so that King Arthur can one day wield it.

In Night of the Ninth Dragon, Merlin, Morgan, Teddy and Kathleen are all trapped in which magical realm?

Avalon holds the four friends, so with King Arthur gravely wounded the kids have one day to solve a riddle and find a missing dragon on their own.

In Winter of the Ice Wizard, what must Jack and Annie retrieve for the Ice Wizard to free Merlin and Morgan?

His eye is the price the Ice Wizard sets, and Teddy and Kathleen join the kids on the journey through the frozen Land-Behind-the-Clouds to win it back.

What rank does Morgan give Jack and Annie after they solve four ancient riddles, before the trip to Pompeii?

Master Librarians is the title, and it licenses the kids to rescue lost stories, beginning with one that would otherwise vanish under Pompeii's ash.

At the end of Hour of the Olympics, Morgan reveals that the characters from the rescued stories can be found where?

In the stars, as constellations such as Pegasus; the trip itself turns on Annie defying the rule that girls may not watch the Olympic Games, which lands both kids in trouble.

Mary Pope Osborne's post-college trip ended with weeks in a hospital in which country, reading The Lord of the Rings?

Nepal was where sepsis stopped the journey, and Osborne has said that trip 'planted seeds of the imagination' that made her a children's author.

In Dingoes at Dinnertime, which Outback animal hands over the last of the four gifts Jack and Annie collect for Teddy?

A kangaroo gives the final gift, and once home Morgan lifts Teddy's spell, revealing the young magician who had accidentally cast it on himself.

Narwhal on a Sunny Night sends Jack and Annie to which Arctic island to save a narwhal?

Greenland is where the kids meet a young hunter named Leif Erikson and ask him to help save the narwhal, though he has other ideas.

In Windy Night with Wild Horses, Jack and Annie protect rare little horses from wolves in which country?

Mongolia's little wild horses came close to extinction, so the kids arrive as eco-volunteers on a nature reserve and ride mountain bikes by moonlight to guard them.

Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne was born in 1949 at Fort Sill, an Army post in which state?

Oklahoma's Fort Sill was her birthplace, and the Army kept the family moving, with childhood stops in Virginia and Salzburg, Austria.

Which Shakespeare comedy do Jack and Annie perform for the queen on a Magic Tree House trip to 1600?

A Midsummer Night's Dream is also believed to have been performed at the palace for Queen Elizabeth I and her court.

At which playhouse, built by Shakespeare's company, do Jack and Annie act in Stage Fright on a Summer Night?

The Globe held about three thousand playgoers, and it burned down in 1613 after a stage cannon set the roof alight.

In Magic Tree House #25, which famous line does Will quote after saying a queen, a girl and a bear all pretend?

"All the world's a stage" opens a famous monologue in As You Like It, and Jack likes the idea so much that he copies it into his notebook.

Which landmark, crowded with houses and shops, do Jack and Annie cross in Stage Fright on a Summer Night?

London Bridge fell down at different times in history but was always built again, Jack reads, which sets Annie singing the nursery rhyme.

At sunset in Stage Fright on a Summer Night, Will rows Jack and Annie back toward the tree house on which river?

The Thames is spelled out as 'TEMZ' in the story so young readers say it correctly, and Jack copies that into his notebook.

The chapter 'Sweet Sorrow' in Stage Fright on a Summer Night echoes a goodnight line from which Shakespeare play?

Romeo and Juliet is the source of "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow", one of several real Shakespeare lines woven into the story.

In the play staged in Stage Fright on a Summer Night, Puck gives a funny man the head of which animal?

A donkey's head goes on the weaver Nick Bottom, and a love spell makes the sleeping queen adore him the moment she wakes.

In Stage Fright on a Summer Night, Annie mistakes the returning tree house's streak of light for what?

A shooting star is what Annie calls it, but the light hovers above the woods and vanishes into the treetops, where the tree house waits in the tallest oak.

Why were plays staged in daytime at the playhouse in Stage Fright on a Summer Night, according to Jack's research?

No electricity meant afternoon shows, so actors who make a sunlit crowd believe in a dark forest 'turn daytime into night', the answer to Morgan's rhyme.

What does the man at the playhouse door charge people to stand and watch in Stage Fright on a Summer Night?

A penny bought standing room, cheap enough that almost everyone could afford to see a play.

Two actors fail to show up in Stage Fright on a Summer Night, so Jack and Annie go onstage as what?

Fairies are the parts on offer, and Will promises Jack he can read his lines from the page instead of memorizing them.

Girls are barred from acting in Stage Fright on a Summer Night, so Will passes Annie off under which boy's name?

Andy is the name Will picks, and he later offers to ask the queen to excuse Annie from the law so she can stay and act.

In Stage Fright on a Summer Night, the cart carrying Dan, the bear Annie pities, advertises which talent of his?

Dancing is the old tame bear's act, but his owner plans to sell him to the fights until Annie steps in.

Annie disguises the bear in Stage Fright on a Summer Night with a wig, a mask and what to cover his back?

A purple cape barely covers his furry back, but the costume is meant to make anyone they pass take the bear for an actor.

Which Shakespeare play, with a small part for a bear, is named in the facts of Stage Fright on a Summer Night?

The Winter's Tale holds Shakespeare's most famous stage direction, "Exit, pursued by a bear."

Queen Elizabeth I flashes black teeth in Stage Fright on a Summer Night, caused by eating too much of what?

Sugar was the culprit, and many other people of the time had blackened teeth for the same reason.

Will tells Jack and Annie in Stage Fright on a Summer Night that the queen has gone twenty years without what?

A good mirror was kept from the real queen too: a lady-in-waiting wrote that she was given no clear one for the last twenty years of her life.

Puck warns Jack in Stage Fright on a Summer Night about rowdy playgoers without seats, who were known as what?

Groundlings stood right up against the stage, and Puck tells Jack to keep going even if they throw rotten fruit.

What does Will hand Jack and Annie in Stage Fright on a Summer Night, each holding only that actor's own lines?

Paper scrolls, known as rolls, carried each actor's lines, which is why a part in a play is still called a 'role'.

Will settles things with the bear's angry owner in Stage Fright on a Summer Night by giving him what?

Gold coins change hands after Will says he has been planning to write a play with a part for a bear, and the owner laughs and runs off.

In Abe Lincoln at Last! Jack and Annie land in 1861 beside which building, then open for any citizen to walk into?

The White House was then considered to belong to all the citizens, and so many visitors swarmed in that Lincoln sometimes found it hard to work.

Magic in Abe Lincoln at Last! carries Jack and Annie to a log-cabin farm in which state, Lincoln's boyhood home?

Indiana was Lincoln's home from the age of 7 to 21, roughly a quarter of his life, and the president himself tells Jack and Annie where they had been.

The 'feather from a hero's hand' that Jack and Annie seek in Abe Lincoln at Last! turns out to be what?

A quill pen cut from a goose feather is the farm boy's parting gift, and Jack later dips it in ink to write the president a message.

The farm boy in Abe Lincoln at Last! says his pa has gone to which state, where Lincoln was born?

Kentucky is where Lincoln was born in 1809, and the boy tells Jack and Annie that he and his pa cut their cabin out of the wilderness after leaving it.

In Abe Lincoln at Last! Jack and Annie return to find the recovered farm boy skillfully swinging which tool?

An ax suited the future president: in 1860 his supporters promoted him as 'The Rail Candidate', playing up his frontier days splitting fence rails.

In Abe Lincoln at Last! what knocks the farm boy out cold at the mill, just as happened to young Lincoln?

A horse's kick to the head really did knock nine-year-old Lincoln unconscious for several hours at a mill.

In Abe Lincoln at Last! which of the president's sons, wild and high-spirited, storms the tree house first?

Tad was really named Thomas, and his father gave him the nickname because he wiggled like a tadpole as a baby.

In Abe Lincoln at Last! who arrives by wagon to end the farm boy's lonely days after his mother's death?

His new stepmother came with three children of her own, and the real Lincoln grew so close to her that he called her 'Mama'.

Jack writes President Lincoln a note in Abe Lincoln at Last! that opens with which three words of encouragement?

"Never lose hope" begins Jack's message, which promises that the land will one day live peacefully as one nation, with freedom for everyone.

The label on the small blue bottle in Abe Lincoln at Last! says to take a sip and then do what?

Make a wish, the label reads, 'for one thing to help you on your mission', and it ends with a reminder to trust the magic.

The farm boy in Abe Lincoln at Last! turns out to be the future president, but which name does he go by?

Sam is all Jack and Annie know him as until the president recalls that day years later and Annie cries, "You were Sam!"

In Abe Lincoln at Last! which hot meal does the grateful farm boy serve Jack and Annie by the fire?

Corn bread and molasses, with fresh milk ladled into wooden cups, strikes Jack as maybe the best meal he has ever had.

Where does the president's youngest son get Jack to hide in Abe Lincoln at Last! just before his father walks in?

Under the bed is where Jack lies holding his breath while the boy pounces on his father and gets tickled in return.

Abe Lincoln at Last! belongs to a quest to undo a spell that turned Merlin's pet penguin into what?

A stone statue is what the bird became when the young sorcerer Teddy's spell went wrong, and he fears being banished from the kingdom.

In Abe Lincoln at Last! which real secretary to the president shoos Jack and Annie away from the office door?

John Nicolay was Lincoln's private secretary from 1861 to 1865 and later co-wrote a ten-volume biography of the president.

Jack and Annie read at the end of Abe Lincoln at Last! that the president's son Willie died of which illness?

Typhoid fever killed Willie in 1862, the year after the visit, and the news leaves Jack sorry he was not kinder to the boy's rowdy little brother.

From his tattered speller, what does the farm boy in Abe Lincoln at Last! ask Annie to test him on?

Parts of speech are his homework, and decades later the president still recalls that Jack and Annie's own interjections were 'Oh, wow!' and 'Oh, man!'

In Abe Lincoln at Last! the farm boy's favorite ink for writing is made from which fruit?

Blackberries give the ink he calls the best thing there is to write with, and he later hands Jack and Annie a small bottle of it.

Jack and Annie run from 'the rough' with empty jugs in Abe Lincoln at Last! fearing which animals are after them?

A wolf or wildcat is their guess, since the boy had told them his sister lies awake at night hearing both.

In Abe Lincoln at Last! what kind of cap flies off the farm boy's head when he is knocked to the ground?

Coonskin tops an outfit of buckskin pants and moccasins, all stained and torn, when Jack and Annie first see the boy.