2 p.m. today
The Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth St., Durham
Magic Tree House Merlin Mission #43 "Leprechaun in Late Winter"
By Mary Pope Osborne
"Leprechauns and Irish Folklore" companion research guide
By Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce
BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN
dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563
Jack and Annie, the brother and sister duo of the Magic Tree House book series for kids, have been around the world and across time, making friends and being part of history. There's no limit to where they can go and what they can learn. Thanks to the imagination of author Mary Pope Osborne, the same goes for her Magic Tree House readers.
Her latest book in the Magic Tree House Merlin Mission series is "Leprechaun in Late Winter," #43. Osborne has had a lot of requests over the years from children wanting to read about leprechauns, she said in a phone interview from current her book tour. Jack and Annie meet the historical figure Lady Augusta Gregory, a benefactor of Irish storytelling and theater, when she is just a girl, and help to inspire her. They also meet fairies and a leprechaun. Recent Magic Tree House books have come out with accompanying research guides written by Osborne's sister Natalie Pope Boyce.
For "Leprechauns and Irish Folklore," Boyce had the challenge of writing a nonfiction book about mythology. She searched through hundreds of stories, most written in the native dialect. It was fun research, though, she said, as are all the guides she has worked on. Osborne's husband, Will, wrote the first eight guides, and Boyce has had 13 published and more on the way. They release the books together, she said, "so children get the dual concept of imagination and truth in one package."
The sisters love to go on tour and meet their readers.
"Seeing hundreds and hundreds of kids in line, missing teeth, holding a book, is so exciting," Boyce said. "It's so fulfilling."
Osborne said that while on tour, she lets the children vote for the subjects of future books. She'll have them vote on three current ideas -- panda bears in China in a bamboo forest, Abraham Lincoln as a boy, or Saint Bernard rescue dogs in the Alps. She'll probably still write all the stories, but will let reader enthusiasm choose what's next.
A recent vote led her to write about cobras in India, which will be book #44. She said that her readers have an incredible capacity for assimilating knowledge.
"Kids are amazing -- even little kids can adapt to sophisticated information. They can quickly understand who Mozart, Shakespeare and Louis Armstrong were," Osborne said.
The Pope sisters, and two brothers, grew up military brats, so they have lived in several places. Their dad was stationed at Fort Bragg and then retired to Oak Ridge, near Greensboro, where he led the military school. Osborne went to UNC, and babysat current UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp when he was a toddler. One brother still lives in North Carolina, in Durham. Osborne now lives in Connecticut with her husband, Will, who is an actor and led the Magic Tree House theatrical production.
Osborne said she would love to go to the places she has written about. She likes U.S. and European history, but whenever she thinks she has a favorite area of history, her minds expands to another period. Recently, it has been India, Japan and China. Each book is a crash course in history, she said.
Boyce said that even when exploring subjects they think they know about, like the American Revolution, they still learn more.
"It's an ongoing adventure, which sounds Pollyanna, but it's true," Boyce said.
