So I don’t know how I’ve gone my whole life not knowing about this series. I’ve had a lot of friends and coworkers go “Oh I read that when I was a kid!” with some fondness when they found out I was reading it. This has happened with a lot of the series I’ve read for my articles. Did I just not have a childhood? I remember reading The Lord of the Rings in like fifth grade, so maybe I just skipped over all the Magic Tree Houses of the world.

Too bad for me, cause I could have learned a lot.

Premise

Jack and Annie find a magic tree house, which takes them to various times and places via the books in it. They’re sent on missions by Morgan le Fay (yes, that one), the owner of the tree house. They bring back research for her library and keep the course of history on track.

It’s an educational series. Historical fiction, to be more specific. It tends to handle education with a light hand though. It usually doesn’t beat you over the head with facts, and has very good reasons when they’re spouted.

It’s also kind of slice-of-life? Despite the horrible danger Jack and Annie are in constantly (more on that later), most trips only last a day or less. Their involvement in even the major historical events tend to be very minor. They drop in just long enough to be cool, but not long enough for the facts to get boring.

Characters

There’s really only three characters in this series, since all the secondary characters are tied to individual books. There’s a few more in the Merlin Missions series, but I’m only gonna talk about the main series today. I’m jetlagged from all the time-travelling around the world.

Jack Smith is Annie’s older brother (he’s 8). He’s very studious, and knows a lot about historical figures. He is the more cautious of the two and prefers plans before action. Early on the series, he tends to not believe things he can’t verify himself, or knows through facts.

Annie Smith is Jack’s younger sister (she’s 7). Unlike Jack, she’s reckless and prefers action to planning. She’s very friendly, and has the empathic ability to talk to and understand animals. Later on in the series, she’s shown to be very knowledgeable about animals, because I guess Jack can’t be the smart one.

Morgan le Fay sends Jack and Annie on their missions. She’s very mysterious and wise (and kind of cruel in the earlier books). She usually talks to Jack and Annie in cryptic messages that give them hints about their missions. Her goal is to record events in history for use in Merlin’s court (yes that Merlin). But Merlin isn’t in this series, so we’ll worry about him later.

This is the part of the character section where I’d normally gush about some side character I love, but none of them are in the series long enough to really talk about. I’ll have to make up for it next Series Spotlight.

Series Breakdown

The main series is currently thirty-eight books, and is still going (thirty-nine is in May). The numbering can be confusing, if you’ve been reading since the 90s. Originally, the main series went to book 55. Then in 2017, they rebranded 29-55 as the Merlin Missions series and continued the main series with a new book 29. Merlin Missions seems separate from the main series, and is never referenced (probably because Jack and Annie are older in that series and it’s meant for older readers).

There’s also one book in the Super Edition series, also aimed at older readers. I’m not sure what their plan was regarding that. There hasn’t been a new book since 2015 (and I haven’t read it yet). My guess is that it wasn’t well received, with book one sending Jack and Annie to World War 2 and all.

Also also if you’re a teacher or just really like learning, they have a series of Fact Tracker books that tie in with each main series book. I haven’t read these yet either. I doubt they add any lore.

Magic Thrill House

The original header for this section was “The Dangers of Historical Fiction or How Magic Tree House Traumatized Me”, but I thought that was a bit dramatic. Forget what I said earlier, because this is solidly a thriller series, hands down.

These poor kids can’t catch a break. They’re usually in constant danger from the moment they travel back in time. They’ve survived tornadoes and hurricanes, been shot at by arrows multiple times, been actively involved into two wars, almost succumbed to mountain sickness and snakebites. It’s crazy.

What makes this all really thrilling is knowing what Jack and Annie don’t know. Either through the title of the book or knowledge of general history, the reader knows something’s gonna happen. That makes you grip your book in sheer terror as you scream at these kids to get out before it’s too late.

Book 24 is called Earthquake in the Early Morning. They land in San Francisco and everything seems fine. And you wonder when the earthquake happens and how bad it’s going to be. Jack and Annie are excited to be in relatively modern times, and marvel at 1900s America.
Then the deadliest earthquake in the history of the US happens.
Annie falls into a chasm. They run around desperately trying to help people. One guy ignores their advice and drives off, only for Jack to read about their horrible fate. On their way back to the tree house, they choke on smoke and their eyes tear up from the flames. As they leave, Annie calls out “Good luck, San Francisco!” knowing that despite the city surviving, thousands of people die.

Book 13 is Vacation Under the Volcano. They go to Pompeii…on the day Mt. Vesuvius erupts and buries the entire city. They don’t realize it’s that volcano until right before it erupts. They frantically scramble out of the city, dodging falling buildings and covering their mouths from the ash. Annie gets trapped in some rocks. When they get back, Morgan says it’s good to see them safe and sound, implying they might not have survived it.

Here’s an excerpt from book 35, Camp Time in California. Annie’s seen a lot of stuff after thirty-four adventures:
“Thank you sir, we only wish we could save it,” Annie said.
“Save what?” said Teddy.
“The wilderness,” said Annie. “We wish no one would ever slaughter birds or catch animals in steel traps or cut down the giant trees.”
“Really?” said Teddy. “Even as a child, you think about these things?”
“I cry about these things,” said Annie.

Sometimes they do know about the event they’re involved in, and it’s even worse.

Book 17 is Tonight on the Titanic. That one ship event that even kids would know about. The second they get there, they look over the side, see the name of the ship, and their faces go white. They know it’s gonna sink. They know they only have so much time to do their mission. They know the further down the decks they go, the harder it’s going to be to get out.

Sometimes I don’t know something, and looking it up gets really scary.

Book 26, Good Morning, Gorillas, has an educational post-section that mentions Dian Fossey, a renown great ape expert. The book piqued my interest enough to look her up and learn more about her. Maybe you shouldn’t do that, because her history is really sad (and violent). But she saved a lot of apes! That’s all kids need to know, probably.

Even though you’re pretty sure Jack and Annie will make it out every time, you still want to know how they’ll do it. It’s exciting. Also of course Osborne had to make the tree house ladder a rope ladder, the most dangerous of ladders. Even when they make it back they still gotta clamber up a tall swaying thing.

But it’s not all daring and dangers. Sometimes they have a nice time. Rarely. Every once and a while.

The Mariel Theory or Comfort in Consistency

A lot of people hate consistency in books. It makes them “boring” and “predictable”. And consistency is a chapter book’s bread and butter. How else are you going to write thirty-eight books without some kind of formula?

I think that consistency can be a good thing. It’s comforting to come back to your friends Jack and Annie for another adventure. You know that, despite the danger, they’ll make it back ok. You know Jack’s gonna read from the research book and you might learn something along the way.

And when these things don’t happen, it really stands out.

There’s a Redwall series book, I wanna say it’s Mariel of Redwall, where something happened that I’ve remembered ever since my formative years. In the Mossflower Woods (and surrounding areas) things are pretty black and white. Prey creatures like mice and squirrels are good, predator creatures like cats and foxes are bad. Bad guys always lose and are shown no quarter. This is consistent to the point where even when they try to be good, they ultimately fail (and die).

Except one time, a couple bad guy lackies genuinely showed remorse for their actions, and wanted to be better. They couldn’t stay at Redwall Abbey, of course, but they continued to live nearby on the shore and the Abbey would occasionally deliver food and goods to them. And they didn’t die for it.

Consistent things make inconsistency really apparent and striking. Here’s some times it happens in Magic Tree House:

• Usually their tree house appears in a tree, but not always. Sometimes it appears on the ground or between some smokestacks. A tree house is a pretty ingenious travel method, since there’s usually trees around, but not always.
• Book 8 is the first, and currently only, trip to the future.
• Book 21 is the first time Annie ever gets really distraught and wants to leave. Can’t imagine why.
• Book 25 is the first book where their entire adventure is danger-free. They meet William Shakespeare and Jack gets over his stage fright.
  • This is also the first book (besides maybe 15) where Jack actively wants to stay and not go back immediately. There’s only a handful of danger-free “nice” books.
• Book 27 is the first book where Jack trusts Annie’s feelings about the tree house being there with no proof.
  • It’s also the first book where Annie is okay with Jack wanting to make a plan first.
• Book 30 is the first time their research book (and the tree house) get destroyed. They manage to make it back though, cause magic.
• Book 31 is the first time they don’t have a research book to use, because Jack knows enough about the Romans to get around.
• In book 32, they use the Frog Creek book to go to Old Philly.
  • This is also the first book where they run into a character from a previous book (George Washington). He actually remembers them, but doesn’t believe it’s the same kids because they’d be older in ten years.
  • Also they take Ben Franklin to modern times. First and last time that’s happened too. I never thought they’d do this.
• Book 35 finally tells you how long it takes to get from their house to the tree house (seven minutes).
• Book 37 is the first time we see Jack and Annie at school, and only the second time we see a Frog Creek location outside of their house and the forest.

It’s kind of nuts how long it’s taken for a lot of these things to happen.

Cool Stuff

I’ve mentioned a lot of the cool stuff earlier, but here’s a few more things that didn’t fit anywhere else:

• Jack dropped the Egypt book. This is the most terrifying line if you’re familiar with their adventures. How will they survive without the facts?
• In book 20, Annie goes back into a fire to save a koala. This is probably one of the most reckless things she’s done.
• In book 21, they just say they’re from Frog Creek, and don’t add the Pennsylvania part. This is presumably because they’re in America in a Union field hospital and Frog Creek would have been around then.
  • They also end up being related to the drummer boy character.
• Book 27 is the only time they really make language matter. Usually they can magically speak to whoever is there, but this time, in pilgrim-times America, the locals get caught on their strange modern sayings like “Wow”, “Oh brother.” and “Sure”. They have to actively avoid speaking normally to not tip them off that they shouldn’t be there.

Conclusion

Now that Magic Tree House has been out for so long, other series like I Survived and Girls Survive have came out. These seem to try and capitalize on the same thriller/educational bent Magic Tree House does, but in much less cool ways. I say “seem” because I haven’t read them, and have no interest to. Like the target audience, why would I want to read about a fictional person in a historical event, when I could read about fictional kids in a magic tree house that go to historical events? I’d think it’s easier to insert yourself into that situation.

If for some reason you’ve managed to avoid Magic Tree House for thirty-six years, maybe check it out. All the books are able to be read in any order, and there’s not a lot of callbacks. You can just pick whichever ones you want to learn things about. You don’t have to read the whole series like me.

I’ve heard in a couple of reviews that the earlier books don’t get all the facts straight, so maybe do some homework outside of them. They’re not exactly textbooks, and I really like that they don’t try to be. They’re fun adventure books first and foremost. Jack and Annie just need those facts to navigate past events. It makes sense for the story.

I’ll get to Merlin Missions eventually, but I’ve got some other things I wanted to get to first. Find out what next post.