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Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 1-4: Dinosaurs Before Dark, The Knight at Dawn, Mummies in the Morning, and Pirates Past Noon | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Pope Osborne
Creator: Sal Murdocca
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Category: Book
List Price: $15.96
Buy New: $9.39
You Save: $6.57 (41%)
New (36) Used (20) from $7.86
Avg. Customer Rating:  98 reviews
Sales Rank: 200
Format: Box Set
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0375813659
UPC: 090129015962
EAN: 9780375813658
ASIN: 0375813659
Publication Date: May 29, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Similar Items:
 | Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 5-8: Night of the Ninjas, Afternoon on the Amazon, Sunset of the Sabertooth, and Midnight on the Moon | | | Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 9-12: Dolphins at Daybreak, Ghost Town at Sundown, Lions at Lunchtime, and Polar Bears Past Bedtime | | | Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House, No. 13) | | | Tonight On The Titanic (Magic Tree House 17, paper) | | | Day Of The Dragon-King (Magic Tree House 14, paper) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Get ready for a world of adventure with the first four titles in the beloved Magic Tree House series!
Jack and his little sister Annie are just two regular kids from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. Then they discover a mysterious tree house packed with all sorts of books...and their lives are never the same! Soon they are traveling through time and space in the magic tree house and having amazing adventures. Whether it's watching baby dinosaurs hatch, finding a secret passage in a castle, helping a ghost queen in an Egyptian pyramid, or finding pirate treasure readers won't want to miss a single story!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 93 more reviews...
 Great series for beginning readers November 11, 2008
First off, ignore the people giving one or two stars or criticizing the grammar. They are full of it. Only the types of English teachers that made you spend hours diagramming sentences in high school would have an issue, and they would probably give "Huckleberry Finn" one star for the atrocious grammar too, if they dared.
Far from an illiterate mess, the stories are well put together and very entertaining for my 4 and 5 year old children. The tie-ins to historical events and people are interesting and lead to lots of asides and explanations (I'm a history buff). The main focus has to do with the two protagonists learning leadership, courage, patience, honesty, commitment, and all the other virtues. And there is just enough magic and fantasy to make it all lively and interesting for children.
I highly recommend this series for ages 4 through 6. Older than that, and the stories may seem a little simple and the vocabulary rather plain, depending on the child.
The non-fiction books that accompany many of these titles (focusing on the time period of that paticular book and what really happened) are also a treat, and much more in the line of the austere educational materials sought by dour school-marms. :)
 Engaging Stories, but REALLY Poor Grammar November 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought these for my five & six year olds. I decided to have them be a read aloud instead of letting them read them on their own. The stories are interesting to them, my son especially enjoys the adventures, but the grammar is so choppy that you really must read ahead and re-word 85% of the time. I think we will pass on the rest of the series and look for something else.
 Simpleton Books With Words. But Not Sentences. October 22, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It is unfortunate that zero stars is not an option.
So, when did children's book publishers decide it was a good idea to throw out basic rules of grammar, such as writing in complete sentences? These books abound in fragments of all sorts. Moreover, the author and publisher decided that helpful punctuation, like commas, are similarly unnecessary. Mary Pope Osborne and Random House ought to be ashamed of themselves.
As a guest artist, I teach writing to a host of public school kids grades 7-12. Many of the students I work with think that they know what a sentence is, but they don't. If they read trash like The Magic Treehouse series when they were younger, it is no wonder. But don't just take my word for it. Compare these books with the writing of Antonia Barber in The Mousehole Cat (Book & CD). It is recommended for the same age range, has complete sentences, and with lively use of assonance and alliteration, is fresh and fun (and the illustrations are vastly superior!).
If you want your kids to read pulp that will likely leave them more confused about writing and grammar than they were before breaking the books' spines, look no further. These books are for you! But, if you think that they ought to be reading something of substance that makes them more intelligent and enriches their lives, try elsewhere.
I love these books September 28, 2008
I have spent many hours with Jack and Annie.These books are so interesting and my favorite one is number 14.I have almost completed the whole series.I have been reading them for 2 years.I wish I could live in the magic tree house too.I love Magic tree house.
We like the stories, but the grammar gives this teacher-mom a serious headache! August 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Pros: Fine for read aloud. Exciting stories for young (K-1st) grade children who are ready for chapter books.
Cons: Serious grammar and usage problems that may rub off on the children's own writing. Poorly-developed plotlines with not enough "meat" for the age level of children they are meant to target.
I have used these books as read-aloud for my two children. Currently I am reading them aloud at nighttime to our daughter, age six. Our daughter reads on a second-grade level, however, and has started reading these books independently, only coming to me for help with words she cannot sound out.
I didn't mind the grammar and phrasing problems when using these books strictly as read aloud, because I could correct the problems on my own as I read. However, Mary Pope Osborn seems to really enjoy the use of incomplete sentences, particularly those starting with "and". As a former second grade teacher this really, really gives me a nervous twitch in my eye! This is only the most egregious and obvious of the grammar and phrasing problems that, for whatever reason, go unnoticed by Ms. Osborn's editors and by Ms. Osborn herself.
I won't go ahead and give specific examples, since this has been well covered by previous reviewers. However, I do want to add my voice to the voices of those parents and educators who worry that this modeling of incorrect grammar may well rub off on young fans of the series. When I was teaching second grade, the students would have been expected to catch and then edit these type of mistakes out of their Writer's Workshop stories by about mid-January. I certainly expect a published author to be able to have as much respect for grammar and readability as my second grade students! I can respect an author's "style" to a degree, but I do believe that an author of children's literature should at least use correct grammar rather than "dumbing down" the sentences in what I suspect is a misguided attempt to make them easier for the children to read. (Children are smarter -- and better educated -- than you think, Ms. Osborn!)
On a positive note, the stories do keep our daughter engaged and excited, as they did our son when he was her age. However, the plots are extremely simplistic, bare bones, just plain not well developed. The actual reading level appears to be that of an average late first to second grade reader, yet my experience is that second graders expect a bit more "meat" to their stories. I know that by late second grade our son had, for example, moved on to the Chronicles of Narnia. The Magic Tree House set is, in my opinion, excellent for read aloud for kindergarten and first grade readers and perhaps as independent reading for first graders, struggling second graders, or those children who have problems with attention span. However, the teacher or parent of any independent reader will have to take care that Ms. Pope's writing style does not negatively impact the emerging writing skills of the child.
In short... Ms. Osborn, please correct your grammar!
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