In the 19th adventure in the best selling Magic Tree House series, Jack and Annie travel back in time to the jungles of India where they make friends with langurs, encounter endangered species, and narrowly escape death by a python. These fantasy adventures all started one summer when a tree house mysteriously appeared in the woods behind their house. Inside the tree house was a library filled with magic books that could transport the children to the faraway places in the stories. All they had to do was to point to a picture and wish to go there. The tree house belonged to Morgan le Fay, the mystical librarian from the medieval times of King Arthur. In Magic Tree House books #17 thru 20, Jack and Annie go on a quest to retrieve four special gifts that will break the enchanted spell cast on a dog named Teddy. The four gifts are:
A gift from a ship lost at sea (#17
Tonight on the Titantic),
A gift from the prairie blue (#18
Buffalo Before Breakfast)
A gift from a forest far away (#19
Tigers at Twilight), and
A gift from a kangaroo (#20
Dingoes at Dinnertime)
Using the one of the books from the tree house,
Wildlife of India ,as a guide, Jack and Annie search the Indian forest to find the third gift. Along the way they learn many things about the animals they see. Like
"The one-horned rhino can't see very well and sometimes will charge at things by mistake." and
"A wild tiger eats almost 5,000 pounds of fresh raw meat a year." - terrifying facts that help convince Jack and Annie to run the other way!
Many of my young students absolutely love the Magic Tree House series, obsessively waiting for the next adventure to be published (note: there are now over 40!). Parents and teachers (myself included) appreciate these books because they are a fun way to teach readers geography and history. Mary Pope Osbourne uses her book
Tigers at Twilight to inform her readers about the endangered species of India.
For another great adventure series, try
The 39 Clues series or
The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky (see links below).