A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World
Updated on Sep. 16, 2024
Here's how to get your kids started reading the delightful, imaginative Magic Tree House series in order—or how to reread them yourself!
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Publication date: 1992
The first Magic Tree House book, Dinosaurs Before Dark, introduces readers to sibling heroes Jack and Annie as they discover the magic tree house. They’re transported 65 million years back to the late Cretaceous period. A friendly pteranodon saves them from a hungry T. rex, but they still have to figure out how to get home by dark—or risk becoming dinosaurs. Before escaping back to Pennsylvania, they discover an odd souvenir: a gold medal inscribed with a mysterious M. Considering the length of this fantasy book series, it’s safe to assume the story will revisit the enigmatic M in the future.
Publication date: 1993
In The Knight at Dawn, no sooner are Jack and Annie out of the T. rex’s clutches and safely home in the tree house than they’re transported to medieval England, where they stumble upon a medieval castle and a heroic knight. But the siblings turn out to be unwelcome guests at a feast. As clues pile up, the mystery of their time-traveling tree house deepens.
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Publication date: 1993
In Mummies in the Morning, ancient Egypt is the scene, and mummies are on the loose! Jack and Annie must help the ghost of an ancient Queen Hutepi find the Book of the Dead—and find their way back to the tree house, lest they become mummies themselves. Kids will learn a lot in this children’s book about the ancient world, hieroglyphics and how the pyramids were built.
Publication date: 1994
Yo, ho, ho! In Pirates Past Noon, Annie and Jack find themselves on the high seas, where they (naturally) encounter some dastardly pirates and set out on a hunt for buried treasure. Along the way, they meet a mysterious figure who’s played a role in all their adventures up to this point: Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend—the mysterious M.
Publication date: 1995
Anxious to stay on the trail of the mysterious Morgan le Fay, the enchantress they met in the last book, Annie and Jack travel to ancient Japan, where they stumble into the cave of a ninja master. In Night of the Ninjas, they must collect magical objects to save Morgan, all while making sure they avoid a gang of evil samurai warriors.
Publication date: 1995
Still striving to help Morgan le Fay break a spell that’s been cast upon her, the siblings get lost in the Amazon rainforest. In Afternoon on the Amazon, they encounter jaguars, crocodiles, killer ants, vampire bats and a host of other feathered and furry animals in the Amazon rainforest as they search for a magical object. Fortunately, a friendly mouse named Peanut helps them navigate this dangerous terrain.
Publication date: 1996
Still on the trail of Morgan and looking for another object to lift the spell on her, Jack and Annie time-leap back to the Ice Age—in wet swimsuits! In Sunset of the Sabertooth, the duo encounters Cro-Magnons, or early humans, as they race to stay warm, achieve their mission and get back to the tree house. They also learn about prehistoric cave art and have brushes with fearsome prehistoric animals, like woolly mammoths and a sabertooth tiger, before making their escape.
Publication date: 1996
In Midnight on the Moon, Jack and Annie’s adventures go extraterrestrial as they journey to the moon to help Morgan. Clad in spacesuits but with a dwindling oxygen supply, the siblings search for another object in this sci-fi book. They encounter a mysterious moon resident and other moon mysteries—and race to get back to Earth while they can still draw breath.
Publication date: 1997
In Dolphins at Daybreak, the ever-mysterious Morgan le Fay tempts Jack and Annie with a four-part riddle. The first takes them to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where they meet up with a clever octopus, a hungry shark and some friendly dolphins—one of the smartest animals out there!
Publication date: 1997
In a race to solve the second of Morgan’s riddles, the kids ride back to a Wild West town that might actually be haunted. A cowboy named Slim, horse rustlers, deadly rattlesnakes and a lost colt are some of the characters they encounter in this scary, but not-too-scary, 10th installment in the Magic Tree House books series, Ghost Town at Sundown.
Publication date: 1998
As they continue to solve the ancient riddles, Jack and Annie end up in the African Savannah, where they must figure out Morgan’s latest rhyming riddle. In Lions at Lunchtime, young readers are introduced to a Maasai warrior and a host of African wildlife, including a herd of wildebeests and a pride of lions who are—you guessed it!—hungry.
Publication date: 1998
In Polar Bears Past Bedtime, the last of Morgan’s riddles takes Jack and Annie to the Arctic, where they get stuck on an ice floe and have to gamble on whether a passing polar bear wants to help them—or eat them. They also meet a seal hunter and learn about Inuit culture.
Publication date: 1998
These kids either have the best timing or the worst—we’re not sure. This time, Morgan le Fay sends them to ancient Pompeii to retrieve a book from the library. But little do they know, they’re in Pompeii on the day of the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E. In Vacation Under the Volcano, can the siblings snag the ancient book and make it back to the tree house before they wind up in the ash heap of history?
Publication date: 1998
Morgan’s challenge in Day of the Dragon King takes Annie and Jack to ancient China to retrieve another book. This time, they’re battling a book-burning emperor, the Dragon King. We appreciate Osborne’s not-so-subtle social commentary here about the evils of book banning.
Publication date: 1998
The fun and adventure continue in Viking Ships at Sunrise, set in medieval Ireland, where Jack and Annie time-travel in search of another mysterious text. But they’ll have to escape the clutches—and axes!—of a horde of marauding Vikings. Fortunately, there’s a friendly monk to help them along as they get a lesson in illuminated manuscripts and monastic life.
Publication date: 1998
In Hour of the Olympics, the kids hop back to ancient Greece and get a tour from none other than Plato himself. We love the girl-power energy in this installment, as Annie confronts laws that dictate, among other things, that women can’t attend the Olympic Games. Do you think that will stop her? Look for an assist from winged horse Pegasus.
Publication date: 1999
These kids do have some big experiences, even if they don’t always have impeccable timing. In Tonight on the Titanic, it’s 1912, and they’re on the fatal voyage of the Titanic—on the very night it meets the iceberg! It’s a tree house rule that Jack and Annie can’t alter history or events when they time-travel. Can they do anything to help avert tragedy as they help their new friend, Teddy the dog, break a spell that will make him human again?
Publication date: 1999
If you’re reading the Magic Tree House books in order, you’re halfway done … with the main series, at least. In Buffalo Before Breakfast,  Jack and Annie are on the Great Plains 200 years in the past: this time, among the Lakota. A buffalo hunt goes awry, but the clever kids use their resourcefulness to get out of another close call. Note that for many parents, this installment may gloss over an ugly chapter in U.S. history—the genocide of Indigenous Americans. It’s worth using the story as a jumping-off point for a book discussion with your kids and further reading on the topic.
Publication date: 1999
In one of the typical circle-of-life dilemmas that Jack and Annie face, the siblings swoop over to India, where they rescue a tiger from a steel trap. Then it’s their turn to be rescued—from the tiger. Throughout Tigers at Twilight, a Hindu hermit imparts some ancient wisdom, an elephant saves the day and Teddy is still a dog.
Publication date: 2000
Jack and Annie discover the dog-eat-dog world of Australia in Dingoes at Dinnertime, where they journey for the fourth and final object required to break Teddy’s curse. As dingoes threaten a kangaroo and her joey, a wildfire breaks out and a koala needs rescuing. When the kids finally make it home safely, they lift the curse, returning Teddy to his original form: a young magician.
Publication date: 2000
In Civil War on Sunday, Morgan le Fay sends the siblings on another mission: to the American Civil War, in the midst of a battle! In this historical fiction book, Annie and Jack meet nurse Clara Barton and help care for wounded soldiers in a field hospital, including a Union drummer boy who strongly resembles Jack. They later learn he was one of their real-life ancestors.
Publication date: 2000
So sometimes Annie and Jack do make it to the right place at the right time. In Revolutionary War on Wednesday, the scene is the Delaware River on Christmas, 1776. Bad weather has General George Washington uncertain as to whether he can carry out his daring nighttime crossing and attack on British troops. Can the siblings convince him to follow through, save their country and maybe go along for the adventure?
Publication date: 2001
Bullies have existed throughout history, as Jack and Annie learn when they travel back to a Midwest prairie of the 1870s and meet students from a one-room schoolhouse. In Twister on Tuesday, the kids learn lessons about getting along with others and recognizing that bullies are often insecure kids fighting their own battles. Oh, and they encounter a huge tornado and undertake a daring rescue mission.
Publication date: 2001
Back to some bad timing on Jack and Annie’s part: When they travel to San Francisco, they arrive just as the great earthquake of 1906 is starting to rumble. In Earthquake in the Early Morning, the kids are desperate to save themselves and an injured family and to complete their mission before the entire city comes tumbling down. The backstory? The duo are on a mission to help Morgan save King Arthur’s Camelot.
Publication date: 2002
Jack and Annie’s next brush with greatness occurs in Elizabethan England, where they befriend and help a frustrated playwright after some flaky actors bail on him. In Stage Fright on a Summer Night, Jack overcomes stage fright, the kids meet Queen Elizabeth and Annie saves a caged bear. It’s only when they return home with a scroll gifted to them by the playwright that they realize their new friend was none other than William Shakespeare.
Publication date: 2002
You can learn a lot from a gorilla. Jack discovers this firsthand after he and Annie journey to Africa and encounter a group of mountain gorillas. In Good Morning, Gorillas, Annie fits right in with the creatures, and Jack feels left out—until he learns their tricks of body language and nonverbal communication.
Publication date: 2002
In the Plymouth Colony of 1621, Jack and Annie attend the first Thanksgiving dinner and acquire another magic ingredient they need to solve Morgan’s latest rhyme. In Thanksgiving on Thursday, they nearly make a disaster out of dinner and have to learn a thing or two along the way about Pilgrims and Native Americans.
Publication date: 2003
In High Tide in Hawaii, when Morgan sends Jack and Annie to Hawaii in search of a “special kind of magic,” the kids get distracted with surfing lessons and hula dancing. But when they have to help save their new friends from an impending tsunami, they realize the magic they’ve been searching for is friendship itself, making this one of the best books about friendship in the whole series.
Publication date: 2017
There’s a 14-year gap between High Tide in Hawaii and A Big Day for Baseball in the Magic Tree House books series. During this time, Osborne produced the Merlin Missions subseries (more on that below) before resuming her first series.
Annie and Jack learn some harsh history lessons as they travel back to April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the color barrier in major league baseball. As Robinson endures the crowd’s insults and focuses on helping his team win, the kids learn about rising above adversity.
Publication date: 2018
It’s 1900 in Galveston, Texas, where only Jack and Annie seem concerned about the big hurricane they know is coming. In Hurricane Heroes in Texas, they desperately try to warn an unworried public. When the storm rolls in, a young family saves the kids. Together, they float on the roof of a house to the Ursuline Monastery, where they help rescue other storm survivors.
Publication date: 2019
When Jack and Annie jump into the wayback machine and are dumped into a second-century Roman legion camp, they try to blend in. But it’s not so easy to pretend to be a warrior—until they get some advice from a mysterious rider on a black horse, who turns out to be Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Warriors in the Winter is another history-packed installment of this bingeable book series.
Publication date: 2019
There’s a major plot twist in To the Future, Ben Franklin! The kids go back to Colonial Philadelphia to help Ben Franklin, who is struggling with whether he should sign the Declaration of Independence. To help convince him, they have him travel forward in time to their home in present-day Philadelphia.
Publication date: 2020
When Annie and Jack go back to Viking-era Greenland to save a stranded narwhal, they meet a young Leif Erikson, who has other ideas—he’d rather kill the narwhal for its distinctive horn. In Narwhal on a Sunny Night, animal-whisperer Annie convinces Leif to spare the narwhal, and the siblings get a lesson in Viking culture and Arctic marine mammals.
Publication date: 2020
In Late Lunch with Llamas, the tree house takes them to the Peruvian Andes, where Jack and Annie learn that a family’s baby llama has been stolen. Of course, they’re on the case. To rescue the llama, the duo have to climb their way to the ruins of Machu Picchu and back again, undertaking perhaps their most dangerous mission yet.
Publication date: 2021
John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt make guest appearances in Camp Time in California, a story that sees Annie and Jack’s magic tree house landing on the tallest tree on Earth—in what will become Yosemite National Park. There’s a poignant environmental message here, and young readers might be as upset as Annie is when she learns of the felling of a 1,400-year-old tree.
Publication date: 2022
In Sunlight on the Snow Leopard, the magic tree house transports the siblings to the Himalayas of Nepal, where they must search for a ghost. But Jack wants to avoid the ghost, and both he and Annie want to learn about Himalayan wildlife. They’re soon lost in the high mountains, but a Sherpa guide comes to their aid. As they learn about local culture, they discover the elusive ghost isn’t so scary.
Publication date: 2023
Jack and Annie’s missions always involve helping those in need, and in Rhinos at Recess, it’s an endangered rhinoceros that needs rescuing from poachers. Not only must the kids survive in the South African savannah, but they also have to dodge poachers and suspicious park rangers to save this critically endangered mammal.
Publication date: 2023
Another endangered megafauna needs to be saved. In Time of the Turtle King, a giant tortoise on the Galapagos Islands needs their help. But can Jack and Annie save themselves from an erupting volcano? (Yes, another volcano! Like we said, these kids have some luck.)
Publication date: 2024
In the most recent installment of the Magic Tree House, Windy Night with Wild Horses, our heroes are blown to the steppes of Mongolia, where they have to rescue some of the country’s native horses. In the course of saving their equine friends from hungry wolves, they learn a lot about the lives of Mongolia’s nomadic herders. It’s just one of the reasons the Magic Tree House series is a must-read for anyone who likes to travel through books.
From 2001 to 2016, Osborne concentrated on Merlin Missions, a subseries of the Magic Tree House books geared toward readers ages 7 to 10. There are a total of 27 books in the Magic Tree House: Merlin Missions series. And as the title suggests, the wizard Merlin of Camelon sends the kids on their adventures.
If you want to read the Merlin Missions series in order, follow this guide:
Osborne and her team have written other additions to the Magic Tree House collection, including the Magic Tree House Super Edition, which features an extended story and additional facts and photographs. At 183 pages, this book (originally titled Danger in the Darkest Hour but renamed World at War, 1944) is longer than any of the other fictional works in the series.
For the series’ 30th anniversary, Osborne penned a nonfiction book offering life lessons, quotes, illustrations and reflections on the series and its remarkable influence on generations of young readers.
And we can’t forget the Magic Tree House Fact Trackers series (formerly called Magic Tree House Research Guides). Intended as companion pieces to the novels, Fact Trackers are nonfiction guides that help young readers understand the historical context behind the events and characters depicted in the series. There are also a handful of Magic Tree House graphic novels, which tell the popular stories in illustrated form.
The Fact Tracker series includes 44 companion guides:
Magic Tree House graphic novels:
More Magic Tree House books:
Osborne is a prolific writer with a seemingly bottomless well of ideas for new books. Of the 110 books in the Magic Tree House series, 66 are fiction: 39 books in the original Magic Tree House series (geared toward readers ages 6 to 8) and 27 books in the Merlin Missions series (written for readers ages 7 to 10). The companion series of 44 nonfiction books, Magic Tree House Fact Trackers, helps provide context for the events and settings of the original series.
On top of that, there are another 16 books: the Super Edition, Osborne’s book of memories and advice, a holiday book, a journal, a survival guide, a “deluxe edition” of the first book in the series, three puzzle and game books and seven graphic novels. That makes a grand total of 126 books.
Are more Jack and Annie books heading our way? Well, at age 75, Osborne shows no signs of slowing down. As new generations of young readers discover the Magic Tree House book series, Osborne has indicated in several interviews that she’s not planning to put down her pen or retire her beloved characters anytime soon.
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At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite books for over 100 years. We’ve worked with bestselling authors including Susan Orlean, Janet Evanovich and Alex Haley, whose Pulitzer Prize–winning Roots grew out of a project funded by and originally published in the magazine. Through Fiction Favorites (formerly Select Editions and Condensed Books), Reader’s Digest has been publishing anthologies of abridged novels for decades. We’ve worked with some of the biggest names in fiction, including James Patterson, Ruth Ware, Kristin Hannah and more. The Reader’s Digest Book Club, helmed by Books Editor Tracey Neithercott, introduces readers to even more of today’s best fiction by upcoming, bestselling and award-winning authors. For this piece on how to read the Magic Tree House books in order, Elizabeth Heath tapped her experience as a longtime journalist and avid reader to ensure that all information is accurate and offers the best possible advice to readers. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
