The magical tree house

The Magic Tree House (original title: Magic Tree House ) is a series of children's books written by the author Mary Pope Osborne . This successful series is about two children named Anne and Philipp who, with the help of an enchanted tree house , can fly to any place and any time. All they have to do is open a book, point to a picture of the desired location and wish to go there. Then the tree house begins to rotate until you are in the desired location shortly afterwards. In this way, Anne and Philipp travel on their own in the first four volumes. In the fourth book it turns out that the tree house belongs to Morgan, whose figure is modeled on the mythical Morgan le Fay . On behalf of Morgan, they experience numerous adventures and are later sent on trips by Merlin . By the beginning of 2020, 56 books in this series had been published in German. The books have so far been sold in at least 32 countries in Europe, Asia and America.

Author Mary Pope Osborne came up with the idea for the books when she saw a derelict tree house while walking in the woods in the 1990s.

Magical tree house books

No.	German title	Original title	Publishing year
1	In the valley of the dinosaurs	Dinosaurs Before Dark	1992
2	The mysterious knight	The Knight at Dawn	1993
3	The secret of the mummy	Mummies in the Morning	1993
4th	The pirates' treasure	Pirates past noon	1994
5	In the land of the samurai	Night of the Ninjas	1995
6th	Danger in the Amazon	Afternoon on the Amazon	1995
7th	In the realm of the mammoths	Sunset of the Sabertooth	1996
8th	Adventure on the moon	Midnight on the Moon	1996
9	The call of the dolphins	Dolphins at Daybreak	1997
10	The mystery of the ghost town	Ghost Town at Sundown	1997
11	In the valley of the lions	Lions at Lunchtime	1998
12	On the trail of the polar bears	Polar Bears past Bedtime	1998
13	In the shadow of the volcano	Vacation Under the Volcano	1998
14th	In the land of dragons	Day of the Dragon King	1998
15th	Island of the Vikings	Viking Ships at Sunrise	1998
16	On the trail of the Indians	Buffalo before breakfast	1999
17th	In the realm of the tiger	Tigers at Twilight	1999
18th	Rescue in the wild	Dingoes at Dinnertime	2000
19th	Adventure in Olympia	Hour of the Olympics	1998
20th	In the eye of the hurricane	Twister on Tuesday	2001
21st	Danger in the city of fire	Earthquake in the Early Morning	2001
22nd	Lost on the high seas	Tonight on the Titanic	1999
23	The secret of the old theater	Stage fright on a summer night	2002
24	on the trail of the gorillas	Good morning, gorillas	2002
25th	In the land of the first settlers	Thanksgiving on Thursday	2002
26th	Adventure in the South Seas	High tide in Hawaii	2003
27	On behalf of the red knight	Christmas in Camelot	2003
28	The enchanted haunted castle	Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve	2003
29	The mighty magic sword	Summer of the Sea Serpent	2004
30th	Under the spell of the ice wizard	Winter of the Ice Wizard	2004
31	Storm surge off Venice	Carnival at Candlelight	2005
32	The stolen desert treasure	Seasons of the Sandstorm	2005
33	Secret mission in Paris	Night of the new magicians	2006
34	The enchanted unicorn	Blizzard of the Blue Moon	2006
35	Attack of the cloud dragon	Dragon of the Red Dawn	2007
36	The secret flight of Leonardo	Monday with a Mad Genius	2007
37	The monster from the ocean floor	Dark Day in the Deep Sea	2008
38	The hidden realm of the penguins	Eve of the Emperor Penguin	2008
39	The secret power of the magic flute	Moonlight on the Magic Flute	2009
40	Pirate ghost on the Mississippi	A good night for ghosts	2009
41	Trapped in the elven forest	Leprechaun in a Late Winter	2010
42	Ghosts in the foggy night	A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time	2010
43	The poison of the king cobra	A crazy day with cobras	2011
44	Avalanche dogs in a snow storm	Dogs in the Dead of Night	2011
45	The pen of power	Abe Lincoln at least	2011
46	Pandas in great danger	A perfect time for pandas	2012
47	Under the spell of the black stallion	Stallion by Starlight	2013
48	The magician's secret	Hurry up Houdini!	2013
49	Adventure in the Valley of the Kings	High time for heroes	2014
50	The best soccer game ever	Soccer on Sunday	2014
51	The King of the Mayans	Shadow of the Shark	2015
52	Race of the sled dogs	Balto of the Blue Dawn	2016
53	The gateway to Dragon Island	Night of the Ninth Dragon	2016
54	The big game	A big day for baseball	2018
55	Heroes in the hurricane	Hurricane Heroes in Texas	2019
56	The Roman spy	?	2020

In English the order is a little different.

Anthologies

In German, four individual volumes were also brought out together in an anthology. Each of these anthologies has a self-contained plot:

In the first anthology, Anne and Philipp are exploring without instructions, in the second they travel to free Morgan from a spell. In the third, they pass an exam as master librarians, which they pass, and in the next anthology, they travel as master librarians to save four books. Then, in the fifth anthology, they release a dog from a spell. Then, in the next anthology, they look for four everyday magic . This is followed by four magical adventures for Merlin. In the next anthology, they prove to Merlin that they can use magic well and receive the so-called Dianthus wand from Merlin . In the next volume they help Merlin, who is very ill, by using the magic wand to find four secrets of happiness and to bring Merlin, including a penguin named Penny, who stands for taking care of someone who needs you. Later, in the tenth anthology, they help famous artists to find the right path. In the eleventh anthology they get four items to bring the penguin Penny, who was unfortunately petrified, back to life.

No. of the anthology	Title of the anthology	Individual volumes that have been combined in the anthology
1	Adventure with the magical tree house	Volume 1-4
2	Around the world with the magical tree house	Volume 5-8
3	On an expedition with the magical tree house	Volume 9-12
4th	Mysterious journey with the magical tree house	Volume 13-15 + 19
5	In the realm of infinite dangers	Volume 16-18 + 22
6th	In the jungle of adventure	Vols 23-26
7th	The mysterious world of Merlin	Volume 27-30
8th	Magic journey into enchanted worlds	Volume 31-34
9	Expedition through fire and ice	Volume 35-38
10	Fantastic journey through time	Volume 39-42
11	Adventurous mission into the animal kingdom	Volume 43-46

Volumes 20 and 21 are not included in any anthology, but have appeared as a double volume.

Researcher manuals

Mary Pope Osborne also wrote research manuals for several volumes. In addition to the story, these contain information on the respective topic. Her older sister Natalie Pope Boyce is co-author of several of the researcher's manuals. Mary Pope Osborne's husband, Will Osborne, is also a co-author of several researcher manuals.

• Research manual dinosaurs (volume 1)
• Researcher Handbook Knight (Volume 2)
• Researcher's Handbook Mummies (Volume 3)
• Pirates Research Guide (Volume 4)
• Ice Age Researcher Handbook (Volume 7)
• Polar Bear Research Guide (Volume 12)
• Researcher Handbook Ancient Rome (Volume 13)
• Researcher's Guide to Cyclones (Volume 20)
• Researcher Handbook Leonardo da Vinci (Volume 36)
• Deep Sea Research Guide (Volume 37)
• Penguins Research Guide (Volume 38)
• The great researcher's handbook

The magical tree house Junior

The first 18 volumes of the Magical Tree House are also available in simplified form for smaller children as The Magical Tree House Junior Volumes. In contrast to the usual volumes, these are illustrated in color throughout.

1. Adventure with the dinosaurs
2. On the trail of the knights
3. The enigmatic mummy
4. Search for the pirate treasure
5. The secret of the ninjas
6. Hidden in the jungle
7. Danger to the mammoth
8. The abandoned lunar station
9. The secret of the dolphins
10. Ride through the Wild West
11. In the kingdom of lions
12. Rescue for the little polar bears
13. The great volcano eruption
14. Danger in the dragon realm
15. Adventure with the Vikings
16. On the path of the Indians
17. On the trail of the tiger
18. Little kangaroo in danger

main characters

Philip

Philipp, (in English Jack) is the older of the two siblings at the beginning of 9 years. He likes to read and is mostly in favor of finding out about the time and place to which you are traveling. Philipp also wears glasses and has a backpack, a notebook and a pen with him when he travels.

Anne

Anne, (in English Annie) is 8 years old at the beginning and thus Philip's younger sister. She believes in magic and is more adventurous than her brother. She has freckles and blond curly hair. Anne loves animals more than anything.

Morgan

Morgan, ( Morgan le Fay ) is the librarian from the Camelot library and the owner of the magical tree house she created to get books for the Camelot library. She has magical powers, which she used, among other things, to enchant the tree house so that it is only visible to people who believe in magic and love books. She gives Anne and Philipp their first assignments. Unlike in the Arthurian legend , she is friends with her half-brother Arthur and the magician Merlin.

Merlin

Philipp and Anne meet Merlin for the first time in Camelot, where they help Merlin to free Camelot from a curse that has made Camelot lose all happiness. Later Merlin gives Anne and Philipp their orders. At the end of the thirty-fourth volume, he hands Anne and Philipp the Dianthus wand.

Teddy

Teddy is an apprentice to Morgan. Anne and Philipp first met him after he accidentally bewitched himself as a dog. They took him on three trips, as Morgan wanted to teach him an apprenticeship before she turned him back. In later volumes he sometimes helps Anne and Philipp. Teddy accidentally petrifies Merlin's penguin Penny, which he can redeem with the help of Anne, Philipp and Kathrein.

Kathrein

Kathrein, (in English Kathleen) is a so-called Selkie , which means that she travels in the water as a seal and on land as a person. Selkies have seal skins, which fall off when they dry. Selkies have powerful magical powers. Her spells are in the language of the seals. Her hair is black and curly, and she has sea-blue eyes.

Illustrations

The books from the series The Magic Tree House were illustrated by Jutta Knipping and Petra Theissen .

Jutta Knipping was born in 1968. After graduating from school, she first completed an apprenticeship as a print template maker. She then studied visual communication in Münster and illustrated books during her studies. She works as a freelance illustrator.

Petra Theisen, born in 1969, studied graphic design , also in Münster, and works as a freelance advertising and children's illustrator.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.familien-welt.de/spiele-und-lesen/kinderbuecher/2674-das-magische-baumhaus-in-deutschland
2. ↑ http://www.ablebnishoeren.de/historie-das-magische-baumhaus/
3. ↑ Before In the Eye of the Cyclone came two more volumes in English (“Civil War on Sunday” and “Revolutionary War on Wednesday”), which were not translated into German.
4. ↑ https://www.loewe-verlag.de/reihe-0-0/das_magische_baumhaus_forscherhandbuecher-40/
5. ↑ https://www.mthclassroomadventures.org/gift-time/our-mth-family
6. ↑ https://www.mthclassroomadventures.org/gift-time/our-mth-family
7. ↑ https://www.loewe-verlag.de/titel-652-652/das_magische_baumhaus_junior_ablebnis_bei_den_dinosauriern-7502/
8. ↑ http://www.ablebnishoeren.de/charaktere-das-magische-baumhaus/
9. ↑ http://jutta-knipping.de/ueber-mich/
10. ↑ https://www.loewe-verlag.de/person-0-0/petra_theissen-1029/druckansicht/1029.pdf