Texas: A nonfiction companion to Magic Tree House #30: Hurricane Heroes in Texas

Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #39

by Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce, Isidre Monés (Illustrator)

Track the facts about the Alamo, the Galveston hurricane, and the great state of Texas!

When Jack and Annie came back from their adventure in Magic Tree House #30: Hurricane Heroes in Texas, they had lots of questions. Why is Texas called the Lone Star State? What was the Alamo? When was the Galveston hurricane? Why was it so terrible? Find out the answers to these questions and more as Jack and Annie track the facts about Texas.

Filled with up-to-date information, photographs, illustrations, and fun tidbits from Jack and Annie, the Fact Trackers are the perfect way for kids to find out more about the topics they discover in their favorite Magic Tree House adventures.

Did you know that there's a Magic Tree House book for every kid?
Magic Tree Adventures with Jack and Annie, perfect for readers who are just beginning chapter books
Merlin More challenging adventures for the experienced reader
Fact Nonfiction companions to your favorite Magic Tree House adventures

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens

128 pages, Paperback

Published August 7, 2018

About the author

Mary Pope Osborne is an American author of children's books and audiobook narrator. She is best known as the author of the Magic Tree House series, which as of 2017 sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. Both the series and Osborne have won awards, including for Osborne's charitable efforts at promoting children's literacy. One of four children, Osborne moved around in her childhood before attending the University of North Carolina. Following college, Osborne traveled before moving to New York City. She somewhat spontaneously began to write, and her first book was published in 1982. She went on to write a variety of other children's and young adult books before starting the Magic Tree House series in 1992. Osborne's sister Natalie Pope Boyce has written several compendium books to the Magic Tree House series, sometimes with Osborne's husband Will Osborne.

Reviews

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Magic Treehouse Fact Tracker: Texas by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce. CHAPTER BOOK/NON-FICTION. Random House, 2018. 9781101936498

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

This informational text covers some of the major points of Texas history and culture. Along the way, Jack and Annie add side notes and interesting facts in the margins of the pages. The major points of the book are the history of ownership over the state, the primary industries (cattle, oil, space), and the natural disastors in the state’s history.

This book is a fast and interesting companion to the fiction book. I was surprised that it started by covering the history of Texas as a whole, instead of immediately making the connection to the companion book and discussing the hurricane. This might lose some readers who are picking it up because of the Magic Tree House.

Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher
https://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com/20...

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much about Texas. I am obviously super uninformed but I found it really interesting. There were so many times I was shocked by how little I know. But now I know more.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only complaint is this: because of the length of the book, the amount of information is limited.

[Laurel Pate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had no idea about the tragedy in Texas with the tornado and they hadn't built up the walls. Glad Texas is part of the United States.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken]

Eleanor says: I liked this book because it had Beyoncé in it.

[Bon Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good. I learned some new things about Texas. I like the side comments from Jack and Annie.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2018, Mary Pope Osborne and her sister Natalie Pope Boyce published the book entitled Texas. This book is a nonfiction research guide to the book entitled Hurricane Heroes in Texas by Mary Pope Osborne which was published in 2018. Both books were written in light of Hurricane Harvey which hit the area around the Texan city of Houston in 2017. The book was written with the advice of an educational advisor and a historian. The book has wonderful black-and-white illustrations. The book has wonderful black-and-white photographs. The illustrator for this book was Iside Mones. The book has an index and a bibliography. Similar to the other books in the Magic Tree House Fact Trackers series, the book has a section on how to do more research for young readers about the state of Texas. It turned out that I did not know that much about Texas, so I learned a great deal from this book. The book has an introduction to the geography of Texas, the history of Texas, dinosaurs found in Texas, several of the peoples found in Texas, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston (Osborne & Boyce 79-88) among other topics. The book highlights the “Great Galveston Hurricane” in Chapter 4 (Osborne & Boyce 51-66). Osborne’s and Boyce’s book is an excellent introduction to Texas for young readers.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading The Day the Crayons Quit from my mother's class I've decided to pop in an grab a random selection of books for much younger audiences. There is really no method to the madness, except in this case. I'm tossing Texas around as a future destination in my mind, so I figured why not indulge a little.

There are a few things that hit me as newfound knowledge. I'd never heard of the "The Biggest Blast" until this and it was quite eye opening. There's a breadth of stuff covered with a lot of little pop-up hints kind of like Clippy from Microsoft Word, except not as fun. The dinosaurs were obvious, especially since I know Texas is known for all that oil, but we don't always connect the dots. Some of the Texas state symbols were revelatory. I knew a little about the hurricane that hit Galveston. The magnitude escaped me as well as some people like Mother Mary Joseph Dallmer.

This is an optimistic view of Texas. They don't dodge what's dirty, but shine a gentle light on a couple of horrible things. It's nothing that in-depth. It does offer further selections at nonfiction books and encourages the use of other resources to learn more.

The book is not exciting but it is informative. I've already looked into the Texas City disaster after reading this and have learned more based on what this book had to offer, so it's neat.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a pretty good overview of Texas history and a few of the famous people from Texas. This has more illustrations than pictures, but they do add to the book. This goes with Hurricane Heroes in Texas

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting introduction to Texas for all ages! I liked the quick changes of subject to maintain interest, and the many sidebars. It has a good section on research and a bibliography at the end!

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fact Tracker all about the state of Texas . . .

[Elizabeth Hubbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this to my grandson, it was very interesting and informative, just his level

[Karlie Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for my children’s literature class. very good book for children to learn about Texas.

[blueygurl2016 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book about Texas. But my only complaint was that we were talking about the Galveston Hurricane and then all of a sudden she threw in information about the Texas state bird, etc. I don’t think that fit in that chapter.

[Marya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything vanilla you'd ever want to know about Texas.