Wee Reads: The Magic Treehouse Collection books 1-8

Ever since Finn was born, and even before then, we would read to him. We wanted to show him reading from an early age. Now he loves us to read the same books, over, and over, and over. But it is the sweetest thing, when he likes to pick out a book and climb into our laps. 

The Magic Tree House Collection 1-8 by Mary Pope Osborne

   

Books 1-8 of the New York Times bestselling Magic Tree House series plus an interview with Mary Pope Osborne!
Meet Jack and Annie!
Jack and his younger sister, Annie, are just regular kids. But when they discover a tree house in the woods, something magical happens. In books 1-4, Jack and Annie are whisked back in time to the Age of Dinosaurs, a medieval castle, ancient pyramids, and treasure-seeking pirates. In books 5-8, Jack and Annie's friend, Morgan le Fay, is in trouble! They must find four "M" things to free her from a spell. Their adventures take them to meet a ninja master in ancient Japan, flee a crocodile on the Amazon River, discover the cave people of the Ice Age, and blast off to the moon in the future. It's a difficult and dangerous mission, but Jack and Annie will do anything to save a friend!
Audiobooks in this set include: Dinosaurs Before Dark (#1), The Knight at Dawn (#2), Mummies in the Morning (#3), Pirates Past Noon (#4), Night of the Ninjas (#5), Afternoon on the Amazon (#6), Sunset of the Sabertooth (#7), and Midnight on the Moon (#8).
Mary Pope Osborne brings together just the right combination of history, magic, and fast-paced adventure to satisfy kids, parents, teachers, and librarians all over the world with her New York Times bestselling series.

Do you like this book?
I really like the Magic Tree House books. The dinosaur one was my favorite! They got to ride on a Pterodactyl! I want to ride on a Pterodactyl. I love dinosaurs. 


What's your favorite part of the book?
When they rode on the dinosaur! And they got to meet a ninja! I also really liked reading about the sabertooth tiger!


What do you think of the cover?
I like all of the covers but the Sabertooth book is my favorite.

I had never read The Magic Tree House series, even as a kiddo. I got a few of these gifted to me for Finn and decided to get them on audio because I could get the collections for him. 
He loves these books and honestly so do I. When we're all in the car listening to them even John and I get into the books.
They're written well, have lots of action and adventure, but they're not too scary for kids. They have something very magical and fun about them. I love how each book is something new, so it teaches them something about history too.

Similar Books...

James Howe has written more than eighty books in the thirty-plus years he's been writing for young readers. It sometimes confuses people that the author of the humorous Bunnicula series also wrote the dark young adult novel, The Watcher, or such beginning reader series as Pinky and Rex and the E.B. White Read Aloud Award-winning Houndsley and Catina and its sequels. But from the beginning of his career (which came about somewhat by accident after asking himself what kind of vampire a rabbit might make), he has been most interested in letting his imagination take him in whatever direction it cared to. So far, his imagination has led him to picture books, such as I Wish I Were a Butterfly and Brontorina (about a dinosaur who dreams of being a ballerina), mysteries, poetry (in the upcoming Addie on the Inside), and fiction that deals with issues that matter deeply to him. He is especially proud of The Misfits, which inspired national No Name-Calling Week (www.nonamecallingweek.org) and its sequel Totally Joe. He does not know where his imagination will take him in the next thirty-plus years, but he is looking forward to finding out.

Review: The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

Title: The Dreamers

Author: Karen Thompson Walker

Publisher: Random House

Publishing Date: January 15th, 2019

Pages: 303
Audio Length: 10 Hours 29 Minutes

Genre: Adult Fiction
TW: N/A

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

 

In an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a freshman girl stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep—and doesn’t wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics who carry her away, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. Then a second girl falls asleep, and then another, and panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. As the number of cases multiplies, classes are canceled, and stores begin to run out of supplies. A quarantine is established. The National Guard is summoned.

Mei, an outsider in the cliquish hierarchy of dorm life, finds herself thrust together with an eccentric, idealistic classmate. Two visiting professors try to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. A father succumbs to the illness, leaving his daughters to fend for themselves. And at the hospital, a new life grows within a college girl, unbeknownst to her—even as she sleeps. A psychiatrist, summoned from Los Angeles, attempts to make sense of the illness as it spreads through the town. Those infected are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, more than has ever been recorded. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what?

What made me pick this book up: 

The cover definitely caught my eye. More so the title I suppose. Between it being called The Dreamers and the tag "The age of miracles"

What did I like about the cover: 

I really don't care for this cover if I'm being honest. The starry background is really pretty, but I don't think the font matches with it. I think something simpler would be better.

What made me read this book: 

It sounded really interesting to me. I needed to know why these people were falling asleep, and what happened to them.

What did I like the most: 

The whole falling asleep for no reason at all thing was really interesting. 

The mystery of it, the why is what kept me reading. I had to know what happened all the way to the end.

That's really the only reason I rated it a 3 star, because I just HAD to finish it. Though it was slow going. 

Literally the only thing I really liked.

What didn't I like: 

Okay so... It was so slow. SO SO SO slow. Like it felt like someone was telling me a story, instead of when it happened. And it (Ironically) felt like a bedtime story.

The narrator read it in a slow hushed soothing tone. I listened to this book at 3.5 speed and it STILL felt like it was reading so slow. 

Nothing REALLY happened in the book. Not a thing. They fell asleep. *spoiler* highlight to read spoiler. They woke up. We never find out why they fell asleep. It's talked about that it might be like a virus. But we never find out, not really. So they literally fall asleep and they wake up. *End spoiler*

The other thing I really didn't like is it's from so many people's point of views and had so many characters that it got really confusing. 

Would I read the rest of the series/more from this author?
I always give an author more than one chance.

I swear this book almost put me to sleep. 

“Who are we to say that they are not right now dreaming a better world?” ― Karen Thompson Walker, The Dreamers

Karen Thompson Walker is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Age of Miracles, which has been translated into twenty-seven languages and named one of the best books of the year by People, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Financial Times, among others. Born and raised in San Diego, Walker is a graduate of UCLA and the Columbia MFA program. She lives with her husband, the novelist Casey Walker, and their two daughters in Portland. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Oregon.