An older veteran homeschooler kept going ON and ON and ON about how cool the "Magic Tree House" series is. What is it? Where do you get it? What ages is it for? What are your personal feelings towards it? I know I'm asking alot of questions, but I couldn't get her to stop and tell me what it is! HA!
Ds (6) has been listening to me read them to him since he was about 5. They are a series of adventures a brother and sister take where they travel to different times and places to either solve a mystery, gather an artifact, or help prevent a catastrophe. Lately, we get the audio books from the library to listen to while doing crafts. They are chapter books, so wait until your kids are interested in sitting and listening to a story with minimal pictures.
We get magic tree house books from paperbackswap.com, I read some of them to the boys when they were 4 and 5, and now they are 6 and 8 they read them to themselves. I'd say a good age range would be 5 - 8/9? The really great thing is that some of them (maybe all) have guides that go along with it to tie the fiction story into actual history or science fact. For us they were a great way to get my reluctant reader interested in a book! There is a companion series called Merlins Missions that are similar but written to a slightly older audience maybe 7-10/11
My kids really enjoy them as well but ugh! The dialogue KILLS me. I don't know what it is.. it just is so.... well, clearly they aren't written for someone my age, but even my ds, who was 8 at the time, complained a bit. Don't let that turn you off, though. They are good chapter books.
My kids got them from the library. Personally, I don't care for them, but Faythe read and read and read them. They're sort of a combination of history and fantasy. Ask your librarian about them, and she'll point them out to you!
We get them at the library. I'd describe them as historical fiction made possible by time travel. I think some go beyond history, but all the ones we read were about particular time periods. It's a series, so after a while, you feel like you are reading the same book over again because the style never changes. I felt the same way about The Boxcar Children. After the fourth one, I'd had enough. That was just my problem though, becuase the kids still enjoyed them. MTH has non-fiction companion books for some of the stories to help kids take the historical study deeper.
I've encountered a couple of people who were adamant that they were not letting their children read something with "magic" in the title. I think with life though there is a certain amount of fantasy in every child's imagination (otherwise why do they play dress-up, good guys/bad guys, build with legos or playdoh, or make little car noises with a Hot Wheel??). That feeling aside though, my oldest son read a few of the Magic Tree House books. My middle son loved them, and read about 30 before out-growing them. My youngest son read/listened to a couple, and that's all. He just didn't care for them. I think it really depends on the child if the books are well-received or not. I'll admit, I only read a couple of the early ones, but they seemed to have some good information about a time period or the people in them. I believe Homeschool Share or Currclick has a couple of lapbook ideas to go with a few of the books, if you'd like a more in-depth study. MT3
My girls loved them. Yes, alot of adults don't like them. But, I tell some of my adult friends they aren't for older ones they are for the younger crowd. I am believer what ever gets a child to read then all for it. (Well not all books you know what I mean) they loved the Junie B Jone books too. I also didn't care for them but they read and read them all.
http://www.currclick.com/cclick_dollardays.php?filters=0_0_0_0_0_30490?affiliate_id=12147 just saw some at currclick on sale
It depends on your child. We let our children read them, despite the "magic" in the title, lol. Our 8 year old loves them, our 10 yesr old never really got into them. It depends on your child. I would definately get them from the library. If for no other reason than that there is so many of them. My son is on #37. I do not know how many more there are.
My kids have the first five. They read them as their 'starter' books when they were in K/1st. The chapters are very short, and the dialogue/plot are very simple. As others have said, the brother and sister travel throughout different periods of time on the hunt for something. The only thing I really didn't like about them was the sentence structure. Fragments were everywhere! For a former English teacher, that just drove me insane. LOL I started to get a little concerned they might mimic that writing habit in their own writing, so we moved away from those to the A to Z Mysteries book series.
We are buying the set as we go along, I think we have up to 35 or so. My daughter LOVES them and she reads from them every night before bed.
They are quite popular. I've never seen one. I tend to avoid series where numerous books are published one after another because I find that indicative of poor writing.
