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A review by jbuck1975
Summer of the Sea Serpent by Mary Pope Osborne
4.0
For a little while now we haven’t read any Magic Tree House books, but last week my son brought this one home from the library at his school and this week he brought home another one so I guess he is ready to read more of them! I’m glad because this is a series I can really get into and that I enjoy with them, more so than some of the other chapter books they’ve self selected at library. If you are unfamiliar with the characters there is a prologue to help you jump in, but basically Jack and Annie are a brother and sister from Frog Creek Pennsylvania who find a magical tree house in the woods by their house. They find that they can wish to go places from books that are in the tree and in each place they learn something or go on a mission for either Morgan Le Fee or Merlin to find or help someone. We read the first 24 books in order but have skipped around through the rest, but that doesn’t seem to bother my children at all and it is easy to find where they are as each book is separate from the others. I would be more inclined to read them in order but that may just be my grown up sense of order!
In this book they go to a time before Camelot to save the Sword of Light so Arthur can later use it. They encounter a sea knight (a knight who rides a half horse/half water animal), selkies (people who are people on land and put on seal skins to be seals in the sea), a sea serpent and a spider queen. Using a riddle written by Merlin they navigate their way through this fantasy place to retrieve the sword for Merlin. They get the chance to become selkies and fight a sea serpent. This really held my children’s attention and was really well paced. I recommend this series to just about everyone, I've used it since I taught first and second grade. I look forward to finishing our book for this week as well. Check it out if you have kids!
In this book they go to a time before Camelot to save the Sword of Light so Arthur can later use it. They encounter a sea knight (a knight who rides a half horse/half water animal), selkies (people who are people on land and put on seal skins to be seals in the sea), a sea serpent and a spider queen. Using a riddle written by Merlin they navigate their way through this fantasy place to retrieve the sword for Merlin. They get the chance to become selkies and fight a sea serpent. This really held my children’s attention and was really well paced. I recommend this series to just about everyone, I've used it since I taught first and second grade. I look forward to finishing our book for this week as well. Check it out if you have kids!