ations. I believe kids are amazing. And I
believe we can challenge them a lot more
than we do. They can do more than just
absorb the world around them. They can
participate in it.”
Or, as Lea put it: “The books are never
boring. But sometimes the room I’m read-
ing them in is.”
“Dear Mary: I wish Jack and Annie
would come to Faraday School in Canada,
and that Annie would not be afraid of the
Grade 6’s upstairs.”
Osborne has spent a lifetime crafting
the soul of Magic Tree House books.
She and her siblings — twin brother Bill
Pope ’ 71, younger brother Michael Pope
’ 73 and older sister Natalie Pope Boyce ’ 65
— lived richly in their imaginations as children, scripting and performing circus acts,
flying planes that looked suspiciously like
The Magic
Tree House
chapter book
series is celebrating its
20th year.
CAROLINA ALUMNI REVIEW
19
