Osborne, M. (2004). Summer of the Sea Serpent. Random House.
As many who are familiar with current popular series in children’s literature, the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne is a crowd pleaser. Osborne writes her stories so that they are very fast paced and full of page turning curiosity, propelled by the adventure of the two main protagonists, Jack and Annie. The main series consists of 28 books, each of which take place in a specific historical time period of the past or distinctive setting that they travel to in their magical tree house, such as in Ancient China, during the Civil War, or aboard the Titanic. It seems all of my second graders love to devour the series, and I always tell them to start at the beginning of the series, with #1, and progress to the very next one, and don’t skip around. I have nearly all of the current offerings for the accompanying non-fiction research guides, and they are allowed to check out both the fiction and non-fiction to compare and use as a resource, or they can read the non-fiction guide afterwards before moving to the next fiction selection in the series. I even give a mini-lesson on these specific points, and explain why it’s important to read many series in the order that they are written. Within the first, you are introduced to the characters and learn about their personality traits, background, and get a feel for the patterning that may exist in a series. I talk to them also specifically about the Tree House series that each book is not just an adventure to someplace and then they are back, but that there’s a background story about different sets of clues that they need to gather involving Morgan le Fay, the owner of the tree house and a librarian full of magic. The clues are usually unearthed in book groupings of four, meaning once one is solved, in the next four books, Jack and Annie are seeking clues for Morgan. There are kids who missed that part of the story and do not see the interconnectivity of the books. I feel it’s important for the series to be fully comprehended, and navigating different types of series is something that I discuss within mini-lessons, I model when I read the first Tree House book aloud, and within guided reading groups or literature circles during workshop time.
Besides the core series of 28 books and a growing collection of research guides being written by Osborne, she embarked on stepping up the series in sophistication at #29, Christmas in Camelot. From book #29 on, these particular books came out in hardback, where as the first 28 were only paperback issues. (Once you are hooked in the series after 28 books, many are eager to cough up the extra money for the pricier version of printing.) It was awhile before any of these came out in paperback, which are referred to as “The Merlin Missions” mostly to more mythical types of places. In the third edition to this subgrouping Merlin Missions is Summer of the Sea Serpent. Jack and Annie had already traveled to Camelot in #29, then to a castle in #30, and now in #31, travel to a made up land’s sea coast, where you can guess they encounter a sea serpent. They meet two children, Teddy and Kathleen, and they come to find out that Kathleen is a selkie, which was mentioned in part of Merlin’s rhyme clue he issued to Jack and Annie as they were seeking the Sword of Light. After the core adventure of the four of them finding the Sword, Jack and Annie report to Merlin, who they later realized was the Water Knight that helped them earlier in the story. The hard cover “Merlin Missions” have much of the structure of the first 28 paperbacks, but they are much more fantasy filled and less with staying true to a particular setting or period of time as the first 28 do. There is slightly more sophisticated language, perhaps in a way to keep readers who have read the first 28 sticking with the series as they themselves mature as readers, so does the series. I’m sure that writing these missions helped to spice up Osborne’s formula and writing for both herself and the readers.
As many who are familiar with current popular series in children’s literature, the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne is a crowd pleaser. Osborne writes her stories so that they are very fast paced and full of page turning curiosity, propelled by the adventure of the two main protagonists, Jack and Annie. The main series consists of 28 books, each of which take place in a specific historical time period of the past or distinctive setting that they travel to in their magical tree house, such as in Ancient China, during the Civil War, or aboard the Titanic. It seems all of my second graders love to devour the series, and I always tell them to start at the beginning of the series, with #1, and progress to the very next one, and don’t skip around. I have nearly all of the current offerings for the accompanying non-fiction research guides, and they are allowed to check out both the fiction and non-fiction to compare and use as a resource, or they can read the non-fiction guide afterwards before moving to the next fiction selection in the series. I even give a mini-lesson on these specific points, and explain why it’s important to read many series in the order that they are written. Within the first, you are introduced to the characters and learn about their personality traits, background, and get a feel for the patterning that may exist in a series. I talk to them also specifically about the Tree House series that each book is not just an adventure to someplace and then they are back, but that there’s a background story about different sets of clues that they need to gather involving Morgan le Fay, the owner of the tree house and a librarian full of magic. The clues are usually unearthed in book groupings of four, meaning once one is solved, in the next four books, Jack and Annie are seeking clues for Morgan. There are kids who missed that part of the story and do not see the interconnectivity of the books. I feel it’s important for the series to be fully comprehended, and navigating different types of series is something that I discuss within mini-lessons, I model when I read the first Tree House book aloud, and within guided reading groups or literature circles during workshop time.
Besides the core series of 28 books and a growing collection of research guides being written by Osborne, she embarked on stepping up the series in sophistication at #29, Christmas in Camelot. From book #29 on, these particular books came out in hardback, where as the first 28 were only paperback issues. (Once you are hooked in the series after 28 books, many are eager to cough up the extra money for the pricier version of printing.) It was awhile before any of these came out in paperback, which are referred to as “The Merlin Missions” mostly to more mythical types of places. In the third edition to this subgrouping Merlin Missions is Summer of the Sea Serpent. Jack and Annie had already traveled to Camelot in #29, then to a castle in #30, and now in #31, travel to a made up land’s sea coast, where you can guess they encounter a sea serpent. They meet two children, Teddy and Kathleen, and they come to find out that Kathleen is a selkie, which was mentioned in part of Merlin’s rhyme clue he issued to Jack and Annie as they were seeking the Sword of Light. After the core adventure of the four of them finding the Sword, Jack and Annie report to Merlin, who they later realized was the Water Knight that helped them earlier in the story. The hard cover “Merlin Missions” have much of the structure of the first 28 paperbacks, but they are much more fantasy filled and less with staying true to a particular setting or period of time as the first 28 do. There is slightly more sophisticated language, perhaps in a way to keep readers who have read the first 28 sticking with the series as they themselves mature as readers, so does the series. I’m sure that writing these missions helped to spice up Osborne’s formula and writing for both herself and the readers.
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