Mary Pope Osborne - About the Author
In these days when there's a certain sense of inevitability that any outstandingly successful children's book series will have a television or film adaptation, it's refreshing to hear that The Magic Tree House is never going to be at the local multiplex.
"I've always turned down offers of letting the series be adapted for film or television because I didn't want kids to stop using their own imaginations when they were reading about Jack and Annie," says popular author Mary Pope Osborne. However, she's not averse to letting the intrepid time travelers loose in the theatre. "Live theater is as much about using the imagination as reading is," she explains. "My fear is that technology is killing live theater."
Magic Tree House: The Musical is on a national tour. The show is adapted from Christmas in Camelot by Mary Pope Osborne's husband and composer Randy Courts. Imagination is an intrinsic part of the playgoer as much as it is for the reader. "It has a huge cast, 20 life-size puppets, two-story high dragons, a flying stag, knights, Irish dancers, and really spectacular songs," exults Osborne. "It has been one of the highlights of my life to see this show evolve and now play before thousands of kids."
With more than forty books in the series behind her, it might seem that Mary Pope Osborne might be ready to take down the ladder or at least move to a different forest. The scope of the series prevents tree house fatigue, however, because the entire world and all of history is open to her. "I keep writing about things that truly interest me and grab my emotions," the author confides. She adds, "Plus I keep learning." Her forthcoming books explore the world and genius of two seminal musicians: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Louis Armstrong.
The books coming out next spring and summer are entitled "Moonlight on the Magic Flute, in which Jack and Annie help a six-year-old Mozart give a concert in Vienna and A Good Night for Ghosts, in which they spend a day with a 14 year old Louis Armstrong in New Orleans and help get him on the path to becoming the King of Jazz," says Osborne. "I loved every minute of working on them. My hope is that my enthusiasm for my subjects will be felt by readers and ignite their interest too."
Teachers are as enthusiastic about the books as the author and her readers. Mary Pope Osborne, along with her husband Will Osborne and sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, also writes the Magic Tree House Research Guides. "In these books, Jack and Annie give readers lots of information and facts about the topics in the fiction books," notes Osborne. "This pairing of fiction and non-fiction seems to work well in getting kids both interested in reading and in learning about other cultures, times in history, science and the natural world." She confides that "My greatest hope is that both series will help readers look at their world with wonder and joy."
Perhaps more than any other series, The Magic Tree House seems to be designed to be as fun for teachers as for the readers. "Ever since I began the series 17 years ago, teachers have been my greatest source of inspiration," states Osborne. "In the beginning I formed my own teacher committee to bounce ideas off of. Then Random House and I started a Teachers' Club. Today we have nearly 30,000 teachers in the club." That's an impressive number but the support with teachers doesn't stop there. "Because of all the great work that teachers do using the series as a tool for learning, we now give an award for the Magic Tree House Teacher of the Year. The entrants sent us information on how they use the books in the classroom. I can't begin to express how awesome these entries are...." says the author, lapsing into a reverie of all the creative, innovative and effective ways teaches have found of using her books.
What's next for Jack and Annie? "Hmm...I'm thinking of leprechauns, pandas, St. Bernard dogs in the Alps, Cleopatra, World Cup soccer...Whenever I go anywhere to speak, I get kids to vote on the ideas I'm thinking about. Soon I'll be visiting our theater tour and talking to kids in Chicago and Omaha...they'll help me determine which of these topics I should write about next."
Perhaps that is the secret of the Magic Tree House books' appeal. Mary Pope Osborne listens to her readers and shares their delight. "A boy once very seriously said to me, 'Hey...are you a kid or a grown-up?,'" Osborne recalls. "I said I didn't know the answer to that question." Perhaps the answer is "Yes."
-- Interviewed by Ellen Myrick, November 2008
