Fun Freetime: Magic Treehouse

Magic Tree House, the award-winning children’s series by Mary Pope Osborne, is celebrating its 20^th anniversary. The series has sold more than 100 million books and has been translated into 32 different languages in 100 countries. To celebrate this major milestone, a calendar of national literacy endeavors, theatrical projects, philanthropic initiatives and publishing releases have been scheduled throughout the year.

Online Literacy Program

Classroom Adventures Program is a free, comprehensive set of online educational resources for teachers. Complete with lesson plans, curriculum guides and creative activities, the Classroom Adventures Program, which launched earlier this year, incorporates every book in the series including the nonfiction Fact Tracker titles, enabling teachers to build upon students’ interest in Jack and Annie’s adventures, while simultaneously meeting core curriculum standards across a multitude of subjects.

Theatrical Projects and Tour

Read! Read! Read! A Magic Tree House Live Adventure is a live Jack & Annie musical with meet and greet for kids, complete with book stampings and photo-ops. It will be performed at SeaWorld San Antonio on April 21 and then for four weeks at the California State Fair in July with several local charity tie-ins.

Magic Tree House: A Night in New Orleans, a musical featuring original music by legendary New Orleans composer Allen Toussaint and based on Magic Tree House #42: A Good Night for Ghosts celebrating the life of Louis Armstrong, will introduce children across the country to jazz. Co-written by Will Osborne and Murray Horwitz, the musical will be previewed in April and will premiere at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center as part of the James Moody Democracy of Jazz Festival in October.

Publishing Schedule

Magic Tree House #49: A Perfect Time for Pandas – the 49^th book in the Magic Tree House series to be published on July 24, 2012.

Magic Tree HouseFact Tracker #26: Pandas and Other Endangered Species to be published on July 24, 2012.

Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark – The first book in the series, originally published in 1992, will now be available as a full-Color 20^th Anniversary Edition, published on September 25, 2012.

Magic Tree House #44: A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time to be published on September 25, 2012 in trade paperback.

All Magic Tree House books are available in print, as e-books, and Listening Library audio books, which are all narrated by Mary Pope Osborne.

Author Activities

Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce will embark on a three-city tour in the Fall. An anniversary video is now available. National philanthropic initiatives will be announced separately in the Spring. Publishing activities will be supported by national consumer print and online advertising campaign, as well as retail promotional activities and events.

Mary Pope Osborne is the award-winning author of more than 100 books for children and young adults, including novels, retellings of mythology and folklore, picture books, biographies, and mysteries. From 1993-1997, Ms. Osborne served as president of the Authors Guild, the country’s leading organization for published authors. She has traveled extensively in the US and abroad, visiting schools and speaking on issues related to children’s literacy. She recently spoke at the UN regarding the importance of worldwide literacy. She lives in Connecticut with her husband.

Random House Children’s Books is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, and ebooks, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books bring together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. The company’s website, Kids@Random offers an array of activities, games, and resources for children, teens, parents, and educators. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG, a leading international media company.