Adventure

The magic tree house whisks Jack and Annie away to Australia, where they must save some animals from a wildfire. Book #20

We miss carrying you in and around our tummies. ( )

This story sees main characters Jack and Annie faced with more challenges involving wildlife. While helping their animal friends they continue to learn about the wild continent os Australia. I love that this, and all the Magic Treehouse books, are passively educational. While seeming mostly plot driven there are great amounts of education sprinkled in everywhere. I wouldn't use this in a classroom setting, but wold have it in my classroom library, ages 7-10. ( )

I had good feelings about this book after reading it. I liked this book because of the illustrations. Sometimes chapter books can be a bit boring to read but with these illustrations they definitely enhance the story a bit. The author doesn't include many illustrations but does include a few in between chapters. The illustrations highlight different aspects of the chapter. For example, in chapter 4 , Jack and Annie found a baby Kangaroo. The illustration shows Annie petting the Kangaroo while Jack looked up the baby Kangaroo in the Australia book that he had. The second thing that I liked about the book was the language and writing. The author uses many high level vocabulary words that lower grade level students wouldn't know but explains them through Jacks character. For example, Jack read about what "aborigines" were in his Australian book. The author includes a snippet of what the definition is and what how the Australian book defines it. Having a different font was also a great way for the author to distinguish that the information was coming from Jack's book.
Overall, this book is full of the adventure that Jack and Annie had when they end up in Australia. They learn a lot about the different Kangaroos and the environment of Australia. ( )