Have you met Jack and Annie? If you’ve ever read the Magic Tree House books, you know who they are!

Jack and Annie are the main characters in this popular series. They travel through time in their tree house. They visit far off lands and go to distant time periods.

Mary Pope Osborne is the author of the Magic Tree House books. She wrote the first book 30 years ago. She is still writing today. The books have sold more than 143 million copies. That’s a lot of happy readers!

The first Magic Tree House book is called Dinosaurs Before Dark. Jack and Annie visit the prehistoric Cretaceous period. They meet a T-rex. They even fly on a Pteranadon.

The most recent book is called Rhinos at Recess. The brother and sister travel to South Africa. They save an endangered rhinoceros.

You might find Jack and Annie in ancient Rome, Hawaii, or Nepal. They have been on the Titanic and in the middle of the Civil War.  In some of the books, they meet Merlin the Magician.

Mary Pope Osborne used to write folklore and mythology. Her books were for older readers. Then she started writing for younger kids. She wanted to put history in her books. But she couldn’t figure out how to make them magical too.

Then one day Mary was walking through the woods. She saw a tree house. She knew the tree house could bring the magic to her stories. The rest is history!