Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osbourne, illustrated by Sal Murdocca

Siblings Annie and Jack are playing in the woods when they find the longest rope ladder they've ever seen, which happens to lead to a magic tree house. Annie is excited to explore the mysterious tree house, but her big brother Jack is a little more hesitant. When Annie races up the rope ladder and finds that the tree house is full of books Jack forgets his reservations and follows her lead. There are hundreds of books on the book shelves and many of them have bookmarks in them. Jack picks a book up about Pennsylvania and finds a picture of the very same woods just outside the tree house window. Then he picks up a book about dinosaurs and flips it open to where the bookmark was. He finds a picture of a Pteranodon and wishes he could see the creature for real. Seconds later, the prehistoric creature is flying outside the window!

Annie, always willing to befriend animals, excitedly descends the rope ladder to greet the Pteranodon when it lands and again Jack is more reserved. Annie names the Pteranodon Henry. Jack thinks she's foolish, but he descends the rope ladder and decides to explore his surroundings. He uses the book with the picture of the Pteranodon in it as a guidebook, referring to it for information about the dinosaurs he sees up close. He records his observations in a notebook.

Jack and Annie see a Triceratops, Anatosaurus babies and even Tyrannosaurus Rex. After running back to the tree house in fear of Tyrannosaurus Rex Jack realizes he left the book and his backpack on the hill overlooking the Anatosaurus nests. He races back, but finds he can't return to the tree house without passing paths with Tyrannosaurus Rex! Not knowing what else to do he tries to wait him out hoping the creature will leave peacefully. Annie has a plan though. She talks to Henry, the Pteranodon, and flaps her arms indicating that she wants him to fly over and rescue Jack. The creature obeys and Jack bravely climbs atop the creature's back for the ride of his life!

The siblings return to Pennsylvania, modern time, by finding the book Jack looked at earlier with the picture of the woods in it and wish their way back just as Jack had wished them 65 million years back in time! The children promise to keep the secret of the tree house to themselves as they think no one else will believe them. The only token Jack keeps from their adventure is a gold medallion he found marked with the letter M, perhaps a clue as to who the tree house belongs to and the mystery behind its magical powers.

This book/series appeals to 2nd-4th grade boys and girls. It's broken up into chapters and would work well for those readers who've explored early chapter books and are ready to begin the transition to chapter books. Each chapter contains a black and white illustration that corresponds to the text. This may be a series that is necessary to read in order as there is an underlying mystery tied to the gold medallion Jack finds and it may be revealed gradually as the series progresses.

Genre: Fantasy

Osbourne, M.P. (1992). Dinosaurs before dark. New York: Random House.

Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Mutant Mosquitos from Mercury by Dav Pilkey illustrated by Martin Ontiveros

Ricky Ricotta is a mouse with a robot for a best friend. This book focuses on their battle with Mr. Mosquito who wants to take over Earth because he's tired of the changing weather conditions on Mercury. Mr. Mosquito makes an army (out of his nail clippings, gross!) and invade Earth. Ricky's robot defeats the mutant mosquitoes, but Mr. Mosquito takes Ricky hostage and morphs his spaceship into a giant mosquito robot to battle Ricky's robot. Ricky's robot refuses to fight knowing Ricky's inside, but Ricky devises an escape plan and begs Mr. Mosquito to let him use the restroom. While in the bathroom, Ricky sneaks out the window and jumps into his robot's large hand. With Ricky safe, his robot fights Mr. Mosquito's robot and saves the world!

Featuring Flip-O-Rama, a mini math lesson, and real facts about Mercury, many boys who are fans of Pilkey's Captain Underpants series will also enjoy Ricky Ricotta.

Genre: Fantasy

Pilkey, D. (2000). Ricky Ricotta's mighty robot vs. the mutant mosquitos from Mercury: The second robot adventure novel. New York: Scholastic.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

Best friends George and Harold create the greatest superhero of all time : Captain Underpants! The school troublemakers pull out their best pranks at the big football game and are caught on videotape by their principal, mean old Mr. Krupp. Mr. Krupp threatens to release the videotape of their hijinks to the football team if they don't follow a strict list of demands. Fearing the wrath of the football team for costing them the big game they comply and behave like perfect angels for weeks upon miserable weeks.

Fed up with being good boys, the friends devise a plan to hypnotize Mr. Krupp into handing over the videotape by using a gimmicky 3-D Hypno-Ring. The plan works and the boys switch the incriminating tape with Harold's little sister's "Boomer the Purple Dragon Sing-A-Long" tape. The boys play around making Mr. Krupp act like a monkey and a chicken and finally Captain Underpants!

Harold and George really have their hands full following Captain Underpants around on his mission to search out and fight crime. Captain Underpants meets his match in Dr. Diaper, the little criminal whose robots steal a crystal to power the Lasermatic 2000 which was created to blow up the moon sending huge chunks of it crashing to the Earth's surface enabling Dr. Diaper to rise up from the mess and take over. To make a long story short, Captain Underpants prevails with the help of Harold and George, aka the Robot bashers, and they get away delivering evil Dr. Diaper to the police on their way back to school.

Back at school, Harold and George attempt to undo their hypnosis, but because they can't find the directions they struggle to bring back mean old Mr. Krupp. Finally, they pour water over his head which seems to do the trick, but if they had read the directions they would've noticed that pouring water over someone in a trance will only cause them to slip back and forth between trance and reality whenever they hear the sound of finger snapping!

This book primarily appeals to 4th grade and older boys, but can also be enjoyable for girls as well. Each page contains illustrations and perhaps the best feature is Flip-O-Rama the unique illustration technique that allows kids to animate the action by flipping quickly back and forth between two pages.

Genre: Realistic Fiction/Fantasy

Pilkey, D. (1997). The adventures of Captain Underpants: an epic novel. New York: Blue Sky Press.

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park illustrated by Denise Brunkus

Junie B. Jones is starting kindergarten, but she has to use the bus to get there! Junie B. (as she insists on being called) soon finds that she hates the bus and all of its loud sounds, heat, and bad smells. Fearing the bus ride home from school, Junie B. hatches a plan to hide in the classroom to avoid riding the "stupid smelly bus" again. Junie B. does such a good job hiding that when she emerges later she has the school all to herself to explore. She wanders around writing on the chalkboard, drinking water from the fountain, sharpening pencils in the library, and applying Band-Aids as she pretends to be the school nurse.


When Junie B. feels the call of nature her play is promptly interrupted as she desperately needs to find a bathroom. Much to her dismay they're all locked, which leads her to recall that in an emergency you should call 911! All ends well as Junie B. makes it to the bathroom in time (thanks to the janitor) and is reunited with her mother who tells her that tomorrow when she rides the bus she can sit next to a girl named Grace who will be riding the bus for the first time.

This book is an early chapter book and would be an appropriate choice for a first, second, or third grader, although it's just as much fun for an adult to share out loud with a much younger child. Junie B. is a character not to be forgotten. Told in the first person, Junie B. speaks and talks like a young child and helps us older readers remember what it was like when we didn't understand our teacher's last name and referred to her as just Mrs.!


Genre: Realistic Fiction

Park, B. (1992). Junie B. Jones and the stupid smelly bus. New York: Random House.

All You Need for a Beach by Alice Schertle, illustrated by Barbara Lavallee

This story reads like a recipe for creating a beach. The text lists all the necessary ingredients in a rhyming tone which supports phonological awareness, one of the six pre-reading skills in the Every Child Ready to Read initiative. This book is also an excellent resource for print awareness as it features text of varying sizes and colors. Vocabulary is another key element of this picture book as its premise is centered on naming things.

This book would work very well in storytime!

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Schertle, A. (2004). All you need for a beach. Orlando, FL: Silver Whistle/Harcourt.

Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume

Margaret Simon is almost 12 and has just moved from New York to New Jersey. She's half Jewish and as such "doesn't have a religion" or at least that's what she tells everyone as religion is a touchy subject in her life being that it lead her mother's parents to disown their daughter for marrying a Jewish man. It's not that Margaret doesn't believe in a higher power, it's just that Margaret doesn't need organized religion to talk to him and feel close to him, she talks to him everyday!

Margaret talks to God just like a friend and confidant. She's not afraid to ask him for the things she secretly desires (her period) or to show him her anger. In many ways Margaret uses God as a dear diary of sorts as she relates to him as honestly as others do their bundles of paper secret keepers.

Margaret is your normal, average, everyday girl who delights in the company of sharing a secret club with her friends, anxiously awaits her first kiss, and embarks on a journey to explore religion from the inside out. Pre-teens as well as adults will enjoy this well written classic!

Genre: Realistic Fiction/Classic

Blume, J. (1970). Are you there God? It's me Margaret. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.