MARY POPE OSBORNE ’ 71
‘Dear Mary: Your book almost made me smart.’
Mary Pope Osborne’s home in Goshen, Conn., looks like a serene place; its many windows open to a lake breeze in the summer and are blanketed with fleecy snow
in the New England winter. Designed by
her husband, Will Osborne, it even has a
tree house room perched on top,
accessed by a spiral stairway. But don’t let
the enviable calm fool you. It is anything
but absolutely still at Magic Tree House
headquarters.
Osborne has many projects spinning,
including a new literacy initiative called
The Magic Tree House Classroom
Adventures Program, aimed at teachers
who use the series to instruct first- to
fourth-grade students in subjects ranging
from science to social studies — and, of
course, reading.
The program has two components.
The first, Gift of Time, groups Magic
Tree House books by classroom subject
and common core standards to help
teachers use the books effectively in a
cross-curriculum fashion, as well as lesson
plans, reading-level information and
activities for the classroom. The latter
will include the dialogue for classroom
plays based on the books, designed so
every child in the class will have a part to
read.
Perhaps more important is the program’s second act, Gift of Books, which
invites Title I schools to submit a proposal explaining which Magic Tree
House books they need for their classrooms. First Book, a nonprofit that provides new books to children in need, will
then help distribute free books.
“This series would be nothing without
bleak autobiographies sat like anvils on her
heart. One day, from a stack of National
Geographics, she pulled photos of exotic
places and challenged the troubled kids to
pretend they were there. Again and again,
life told her: Never underestimate the gift
of an imagination.
Osborne with computer and binoculars, in her “tree
house” room.
Opposite page: An
event from a tour in
which 4,000 copies
of A Good Night For
Ghosts, a Magic
Tree House book
that takes place in
New Orleans, were
donated to schools
struggling after
Hurricane Katrina.
dren’s book authors to use at the time.
“They are clunky, crude, badly written,” Osborne says now of the first four
books, whispering: “They embarrass me.
You must know, they get better.” (She is
rewriting the first book, Dinosaurs, to
honor the series’ 20th anniversary.)
Osborne listened to the educators, who
wanted “kids to learn the right way” with
full sentences. A loose partnership with
teachers was born — and so was a children’s literature phenomenon.
In 1993, she became only the second
children’s book author in 90 years to serve
as president of The Author’s Guild.
“When I was young, I felt like anything
was possible, and everything would lead to
something great,” said Osborne, who was
42 when the first Magic Tree House book
was published. “But it was a process. It
Time travel
appealed to her,
and one day
on a woodsy
walk with Will
in Pennsylvania,
they found an
old tree house.
It clicked.
