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Magic Tree House "Merlin Missions" #5
Carnival at Candlelight
Jack and Annie's latest Merlin Mission sends them back into history to the flood-threatened city of Venice. With the help of mysterious instructions, a research book, and a packet of magic rhymes, the Magic Tree House adventurers hope to avert a most watery catastrophe.
105 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 2004
495 people are currently reading
2581 people want to read
About the author
Mary Pope Osborne
526 books2,636 followersMary 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 259 reviews
August 16, 2012
I love this! It's also one of my favorites from the MTH series! This is the first book where Roman mythology was mentioned (Yes! Neptune's there!) and saved Italy from going underwater.
November 5, 2015
The Merlin Missions.
This new expansion of the Magic Treehouse series delves deeper into fantasy, bringing in fantastical settings, or in this case, historical settings with magical beings and more spellcasting.
Jack and Annie are being tested to prove their worthiness to train as wizards under the tutelage of Merlin and Morgan Le Fey. They must complete four missions, and their wizard friends Teddy and Kathleen have provided them with a handy spellbook full of magical rhymes. There are ten spells, though, and each may be used only once.
The power level of these stories has been amped way up here. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that Jack and Annie are summoning mythological gods before all is said and done.
Also amped up: The complexity of the plot. And in this story, it works pretty well. The kids arrive in the 18th Century, on Carnival Night. They have a cryptic rhyme to decipher, and a disaster to prevent.
They meet some good supporting characters along the way. A young artist who they encounter was particularly interesting. The pacing is good, a nice mix of excitement and puzzle-solving, but with enough breathing room for the author's love for the city of Venice to really show in the descriptions.
I read this out loud to the Kiddo, and I should note that he particularly loved a scene with quick bits of dialogue and description punctuated by the booming toll of a clock bell striking midnight.
This was clever and fun, and I look forward to more Merlin Missions.
This new expansion of the Magic Treehouse series delves deeper into fantasy, bringing in fantastical settings, or in this case, historical settings with magical beings and more spellcasting.
Jack and Annie are being tested to prove their worthiness to train as wizards under the tutelage of Merlin and Morgan Le Fey. They must complete four missions, and their wizard friends Teddy and Kathleen have provided them with a handy spellbook full of magical rhymes. There are ten spells, though, and each may be used only once.
The power level of these stories has been amped way up here. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that Jack and Annie are summoning mythological gods before all is said and done.
Also amped up: The complexity of the plot. And in this story, it works pretty well. The kids arrive in the 18th Century, on Carnival Night. They have a cryptic rhyme to decipher, and a disaster to prevent.
They meet some good supporting characters along the way. A young artist who they encounter was particularly interesting. The pacing is good, a nice mix of excitement and puzzle-solving, but with enough breathing room for the author's love for the city of Venice to really show in the descriptions.
I read this out loud to the Kiddo, and I should note that he particularly loved a scene with quick bits of dialogue and description punctuated by the booming toll of a clock bell striking midnight.
This was clever and fun, and I look forward to more Merlin Missions.
December 29, 2017
Such a fun reread!
January 6, 2025
very fun very sweet, amazing illustrations :) lots of fun facts, osborne easily mingles education with magic and you can tell she really cares about what she's writing about. her forward has her saying, "Writing a Magic Tree House adventure set in Venice meant that I could return there in my imagination every day for many months." her passion and wonder is mirrored by the frog creek kids at the end of the book where they're mulling over their trip. "Annie sighed. 'I wish we'd had a little more time to visit Venice,' she said. "I'm glad Lorenzo gave us his painting to finish,' said Jack. 'That'll be like living our trip all over again." :)
the mystery is a fun plot, a good way to send the kids racing across venice in a dizzy confused state through the grand Carnival and opulent palace of the ruler... children learn the virtues of patience, imagination, and of course, magic.
i like that lorenzo is also a kid that's very sweet
i like it i miss reading magic tree house
also i almost cried :p
Wow! Wow! Wow!
the mystery is a fun plot, a good way to send the kids racing across venice in a dizzy confused state through the grand Carnival and opulent palace of the ruler... children learn the virtues of patience, imagination, and of course, magic.
i like that lorenzo is also a kid that's very sweet
i like it i miss reading magic tree house
also i almost cried :p
Wow! Wow! Wow!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2024
Lots of fun ... travel and info about another country ... fun adventure ... magic ... all wonderful!
January 11, 2014
This book is part of a selection of books written by Mary Pope Osborne the collective of books is named the Magic Tree House collection. The books are based around a magic tree house which two siblings discover. The magic tree house allows them to go on adventures and time- travel to different parts of the world to see what the place was like in the past. The books tend to focus on real places and therefore are a good way of broadening children’s knowledge of the world. The books consist of around a hundred pages each and have some pictures; however the pictures inside the book tend to be black and white. I would recommend the book for KS2. The book started with a quote relating to the story as do most of the books in the collection. In the Carnival at candlelight Osborn mixes the facts about Venice in the 1700’s with spells and magic. The siblings are told that they must complete four quests if they want to receive the power of creating magic of their own. The quest in Venice involves a number of different things such of finding the ‘lady of the lagoon’, completing these tasks allows the siblings to come across different people who live in 1700’s Venice and also see festivals and traditions that were common in 1700’s Venice. Overall I would say that the book is a fairly good adventure story and a fun way of broadening children’s knowledge of the world.
November 24, 2020
My 8-year-old says it's a solid 5 stars and the man has spoken so that's what we're giving it 😄 All the Magic Treehouse books are wonderful and creative. I've never found anything negative about them.
July 6, 2021
This book was super good. everything was good in it and it was called a silly silly name the book was super good and everyone asked Jack and Annie if they were okay and they were good and everything was fine and at the end of each book they always get back to their own home.
January 11, 2016
Read with my 7 yo. She loves them, and I do, too. Great adventure, always a good history or geography point (this time it was Venice, Italy).
July 25, 2023
A riveting tale that was reread as we stopped in Venice!! After seeing a gondola for the first time, I remembered that there was a magic tree house book for Venice and I promptly went to Libby.
So happy they saved Venice from the flood in this story but even they can’t stop Venice from going down in the next 10 years 🙇🏼♀️
Maggie and maddie didn’t listen to my out loud reading of this book on a random park bench in public so now I’m fighting with them.
So happy they saved Venice from the flood in this story but even they can’t stop Venice from going down in the next 10 years 🙇🏼♀️
Maggie and maddie didn’t listen to my out loud reading of this book on a random park bench in public so now I’m fighting with them.
November 6, 2021
A Merlin Mission to Carnival in Venice. The brother and sister team are once again given rhymes and hints to solve the mission, and are left "alone" to figure it out and find success. Patience is the key word in this episode.
July 31, 2023
Takes me back to reading/listening to these basically on a loop from kindergarten (or maybe earlier?) to probably 6th grade. I especially enjoyed this since I was just in Venice a couple months ago, and I could easily imagine a lot of the places jack and Annie went to like St. Mark’s Square and the bell tower in St. Mark’s Square. I also will always be a able to look back at these (as well as Nancy Drew and Junie B Jones) as the books that sparked my love of reading; and, as I’ve recently discovered, also had a profound impact on my own writing style, and the aspects in a story that I focus on while writing.
May 21, 2021
it was a cool book . My fav part was when they were riding the lion . :) :) :)
February 2, 2023
My students rated this 5 stars! Such a good one.
Read
June 21, 2024i can return my library books now
also i think la faye is Osborne's self insert OC
shout out st mark
also i think la faye is Osborne's self insert OC
shout out st mark
September 29, 2012
In book 33, Jack and Annie embark on a new series of Merlin mission. They are given a book of 10 Magic Rhymes and must use them wisely for 4 missions; then Merlin will allow them to make magic on their own. He sends them 260 years in the past, to Venice, Italy.
This is the rhyme they must follow:
. . . When waters rise beneath the moon, visit the Grand Lady of the Lagoon.
To find out where you need to go, seek out a painter named Tiepolo.
At midnight two men will tell you the time. To the top of their tower, hurry and climb.
The King of the Jungle will carry you there, not over land, but high in the air.
An Angel of gold will show you the way to the sea by night, and home by day . . .
It takes a while for the children to figure out that they city of Venice IS the Grand Lady of the Lagoon. The painter named Tiepolo is a child, the son of a famous painter also named Tiepolo. They must use a magic rhyme to make a stone lion come to life and carry them out to sea, where they must convince Neptune to cease the storm so that Venice will not be flooded.
Exciting adventure and lots of history and good information about Venice.
This is the rhyme they must follow:
. . . When waters rise beneath the moon, visit the Grand Lady of the Lagoon.
To find out where you need to go, seek out a painter named Tiepolo.
At midnight two men will tell you the time. To the top of their tower, hurry and climb.
The King of the Jungle will carry you there, not over land, but high in the air.
An Angel of gold will show you the way to the sea by night, and home by day . . .
It takes a while for the children to figure out that they city of Venice IS the Grand Lady of the Lagoon. The painter named Tiepolo is a child, the son of a famous painter also named Tiepolo. They must use a magic rhyme to make a stone lion come to life and carry them out to sea, where they must convince Neptune to cease the storm so that Venice will not be flooded.
Exciting adventure and lots of history and good information about Venice.
May 10, 2016
Magic Tree House #33! This has been one of my favorite Magic Tree House books to date. Often times when I read about a place or a lifestyle, I long to immerse myself in it. But no book of any genre has made me want to visit its setting more than this book. Very powerful descriptive language for a children's chapter book. The fantastical aspects were wonderful. I would love to read a more grown-up version of this story. 4.5 stars.
December 13, 2011
Creative Nonfiction Reread
The story to be honest was pretty repetitive and lame... Well I guess I'm not a seven year old anymore! I still know why I loved and chased the series though- colorful pictures and a new mystic journey every time.
The story to be honest was pretty repetitive and lame... Well I guess I'm not a seven year old anymore! I still know why I loved and chased the series though- colorful pictures and a new mystic journey every time.
March 22, 2020
In the magic treehouse series not only in Merlin Missions, there are two kids named named Jack and Annie and they found a magic treehouse. They soon discovered that in the magic treehouse there were lots of books. They also discovered that when they point to a picture in a book and make a wish to go there the magic treehouse just magically transport them there! They soon discovered that this treehouse belongs to Morgan Le Fay. So far Jack and Annie have helped Morgan with a humongous amount of things by going on missions from all times with the help of the magic treehouse. In Merlin Missions, it is not Morgan that sends them on the missions though. It is Merlin. He is a fantastic magician!
In this book it starts off like this. Jack and Annie’s friends from Camelot named Kathleen and Teddy use magic to make Jack and Annie dream that the magic treehouse is back! And sure enough, they went to visit the magic treehouse and saw Teddy and Kathleen in the treehouse sleeping! Soon when they woke their friends up their friends said that they can’t come with them on this mission because this mission is to test out if they can handle using magic! Teddy and Kathleen gave them ten rhymes to create magic on four missions. However Jack and Annie can only use one rhyme once which is only ten chances to use magic on four entire missions! If they complete these four missions properly with a little bit of magic they will be given magic to use themselves! Anyway on this first mission it is quite hard I must admit. It really tests Jack and Annie on their patience. At first, they try to find the Grand Lady of the Lagoon! This is because their rhyme says that they should help the Grand Lady of the Lagoon! They think the Grand Lady of the Lagoon is the ruler of Italy so they go to where the ruler of Italy lives! However they are quite wrong! The Grand Lady of the Lagoon is not Italy’s ruler! Soon the soldiers guarding the ruler’s house see Jack and Annie and decide to lock them up! How will they complete their mission and be trustworthy to be given magic if they are locked up forever? They need to escape, but how?
In this book it starts off like this. Jack and Annie’s friends from Camelot named Kathleen and Teddy use magic to make Jack and Annie dream that the magic treehouse is back! And sure enough, they went to visit the magic treehouse and saw Teddy and Kathleen in the treehouse sleeping! Soon when they woke their friends up their friends said that they can’t come with them on this mission because this mission is to test out if they can handle using magic! Teddy and Kathleen gave them ten rhymes to create magic on four missions. However Jack and Annie can only use one rhyme once which is only ten chances to use magic on four entire missions! If they complete these four missions properly with a little bit of magic they will be given magic to use themselves! Anyway on this first mission it is quite hard I must admit. It really tests Jack and Annie on their patience. At first, they try to find the Grand Lady of the Lagoon! This is because their rhyme says that they should help the Grand Lady of the Lagoon! They think the Grand Lady of the Lagoon is the ruler of Italy so they go to where the ruler of Italy lives! However they are quite wrong! The Grand Lady of the Lagoon is not Italy’s ruler! Soon the soldiers guarding the ruler’s house see Jack and Annie and decide to lock them up! How will they complete their mission and be trustworthy to be given magic if they are locked up forever? They need to escape, but how?
July 31, 2023
Magic Tree House Carnival at Candlelight book is just super amazing! It's a Merlin Mission, and I love those! They're not as rare as people say. They come in little packs together, like in a special time in the series.
So, in this book, Jack and Annie get a new mission from their mom. They have to go back over 250 years to save the grand lady of the Lagoon from a terrible disaster. The grand lady of the Lagoon is like Venice in Italy, and the disaster is that the water is rising, and there's gonna be a big flood. They need to save Venice!
But, I have to say, Jack and Annie are really confused because they don't understand much of Merlin's description. They only know they have to go to Venice and save the grand lady. It's so interesting, but it can be super confusing too!
I love these Magic Tree House books so much! They really make my imagination go wild. Sometimes, I even pretend that I'm invisible and go on missions with Jack and Annie, just like a Magic Tree House of my own! And guess what? I found a hollow tree that I can pretend is my secret doorway to the adventures.
Mary Pope Osborne, the author of these books, is just incredible! She makes us feel like we're going on time-traveling missions with Merlin, Morgan, Kathleen, Teddy, and Penny. Her books are like time machines, taking us to different dimensions and giving us exciting missions to solve.
When I read these books, I feel like I'm staying a child forever with an open mind. They are so good at making me love reading even more! When I grow up, I want to help other kids find and enjoy amazing books like these. Maybe I'll be a book tester or something!
I just love these books, and I think everyone in the whole wide world should read them too! They're magical, and they keep me hooked on reading all the time. Thank you, Mary Pope Osborne, for being such a talented author and making these incredible books for us to enjoy!
If you're a fan of this book, you won't want to miss my full review on my YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/ykTuKh8Zvvc
So, in this book, Jack and Annie get a new mission from their mom. They have to go back over 250 years to save the grand lady of the Lagoon from a terrible disaster. The grand lady of the Lagoon is like Venice in Italy, and the disaster is that the water is rising, and there's gonna be a big flood. They need to save Venice!
But, I have to say, Jack and Annie are really confused because they don't understand much of Merlin's description. They only know they have to go to Venice and save the grand lady. It's so interesting, but it can be super confusing too!
I love these Magic Tree House books so much! They really make my imagination go wild. Sometimes, I even pretend that I'm invisible and go on missions with Jack and Annie, just like a Magic Tree House of my own! And guess what? I found a hollow tree that I can pretend is my secret doorway to the adventures.
Mary Pope Osborne, the author of these books, is just incredible! She makes us feel like we're going on time-traveling missions with Merlin, Morgan, Kathleen, Teddy, and Penny. Her books are like time machines, taking us to different dimensions and giving us exciting missions to solve.
When I read these books, I feel like I'm staying a child forever with an open mind. They are so good at making me love reading even more! When I grow up, I want to help other kids find and enjoy amazing books like these. Maybe I'll be a book tester or something!
I just love these books, and I think everyone in the whole wide world should read them too! They're magical, and they keep me hooked on reading all the time. Thank you, Mary Pope Osborne, for being such a talented author and making these incredible books for us to enjoy!
If you're a fan of this book, you won't want to miss my full review on my YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/ykTuKh8Zvvc
August 21, 2023
Best of the best of children's writing for the elementary grades. The book contains a well developed plot, a smattering of challenging words, gorgeous setting depicted in detailed and engaging illustration. Perfectas introduction to chapter books and as perfect aid to practice decoding, reading flow, and comprehension.
Outstanding historically fictionalized adventure in 1700's Venice, the height of the power of the Serinissima. The two adventurers are dropped into the middle of Carnival, and must save the Lady of the Lagoon from mortal danger. On the way they ride a gondola at night, witness St. Mark's square flood, speak to masked persons, meet a famous Venetian artist, ride the Lion, and plead with a Roman god.
I asked my first grader to read this in the summer before a trip to Venice. I didn't think I will learn anything new from this book, but that proved wrong. The background knowledge this book proved enriching to our trip in an unexpected way it introducing me/us to a important master of Venetian art, Giovanni Batistta Tiepolo and his son, also a painter, Giovanni Dominico Tiepolo.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
Outstanding historically fictionalized adventure in 1700's Venice, the height of the power of the Serinissima. The two adventurers are dropped into the middle of Carnival, and must save the Lady of the Lagoon from mortal danger. On the way they ride a gondola at night, witness St. Mark's square flood, speak to masked persons, meet a famous Venetian artist, ride the Lion, and plead with a Roman god.
I asked my first grader to read this in the summer before a trip to Venice. I didn't think I will learn anything new from this book, but that proved wrong. The background knowledge this book proved enriching to our trip in an unexpected way it introducing me/us to a important master of Venetian art, Giovanni Batistta Tiepolo and his son, also a painter, Giovanni Dominico Tiepolo.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
March 16, 2021
The magic treehouse books were always my favorite growing up. They teach you something about history while keeping you completely involved in a mystery. I truly felt like I learned more about history from these books then for my social studies class growing up. This book was actually one of the first that introduced Roman mythology. Even as an adult I am still obsessed with books that reference Greek or Roman mythology. Venice, Italy is one of the places on my bucket list that I want to go to. One because of the story and two because of how rich in history that places. This book follows Jack and Annie. They are sent back in time to Venice, Italy to save the city from a huge flood. This book put together fantasy, history, and magic to create a book that kept the reader enraptured. I love the author includes pictures throughout the chapter book. It adds to the storytelling. And it's also something unexpected and rarely found in chapter books.
May 18, 2017
Carnival at Candlelight is a magical kind of book, but it's not magic. At some points there is magic in the story.
Jack and Annie had to find as they call her, "The Lady of the Lake," and save her from a catastrophe that they call Neptune. Neptune was making a whole bunch of water go to Italy so that it could flood it, since Italy is surrounded by water.
Everybody was having so much fun at a carnival that they didn't notice the water was up to their knees. Jack and Annie had looked at their spell book that Teddy and Kathleen had given them. They used one of the spells. At first there was one to break metal to get out of a cage. The second time they used the spell that can makes statue or stone turn into a living thing. They did it to a lion.
I didn't like this book as much, because it just wasn't as exciting to me as the other stories I have read from Magic Tree House.
Jack and Annie had to find as they call her, "The Lady of the Lake," and save her from a catastrophe that they call Neptune. Neptune was making a whole bunch of water go to Italy so that it could flood it, since Italy is surrounded by water.
Everybody was having so much fun at a carnival that they didn't notice the water was up to their knees. Jack and Annie had looked at their spell book that Teddy and Kathleen had given them. They used one of the spells. At first there was one to break metal to get out of a cage. The second time they used the spell that can makes statue or stone turn into a living thing. They did it to a lion.
I didn't like this book as much, because it just wasn't as exciting to me as the other stories I have read from Magic Tree House.
March 14, 2019
Mary Pope Osborne has done it again (and again and again)! I can't count how many times I have read books from her Magic Tree House series with my children, but with my last son, we've been reading them together in order, and her books never disappoint. He always asks for one more chapter. In this novel, he loved that it was Jack, not Annie, who was the impatient and impulsive one. He enjoyed this slight role reversal very much.
January 15, 2021
I really like it. I like the whole story. I can't believe how much they did in this story: they went to Venice and they rode on a flying lion, met a painter, and saved the city from a flood. I can't believe that they made something that is not real come out of the water [Neptune]--and he has a castle below the water ya know--and oh man how he stopped the flood and saved the city! Oh man! They saved everyone!
Review from 3 yo sister: No. No books!
Review from 3 yo sister: No. No books!
May 24, 2021
To me this book is beyond my expectations. It has emotion imagery and it has great characters! There are parts that evoke a lot of emotion. Mary Pope Osborne uses words that give you a mental image. And the plot she has her characters go down makes the story really exciting. In this story the characters need to save the grand lady of the lagoon but they struggle a lot and it makes sound so real! -DG
June 15, 2021
This is the first Merlin Mission that takes place in the real world. This time, Jack and Annie go to Carnival in Venice. This starts the quartet of them proving that they can handle magic, so that Merlin will teach them. Along the way on these four mission, Teddy and Kathleen have prepared ten spells for them to use to show that they can properly use their magic. This one does not have a Fact Tracker.
July 7, 2022
Very nice book. Anyways on to the story. So Jack and Annie the main characters go to the grand Lady lagoon.to save the grand Lady lagoon from a terrible disaster. Which in the end they understand it is a a special name of that place they are in.Its actual name is Venice. Very interesting and informative too. Oh and also in the end of the book there are interesting facts about Venice. Well read the book for more details.
January 10, 2024
This amazing work of magical series called "Magic Tree House"Carnival at Candlelight by Mary Pope Osborne is exclusive artwork which grabs your attention. In this book Jack and Annie are going on a mission given by Merlin (magical wizard).
Their mission clues :
When waters rise beneath the moon,
Visit the Grand Lady of the Lagoon.
To find out where you need to go,
Seek out a painter named Tiepolo.
At midnight two men will tell you the time.
To the top of their tower hurry and climb.
The king of the jungle will carry you there,
Not over land but high in the air.
An angel of gold will show the way
To the sea by night, and home by day.
I like this book because it has a riddle, it is adventurous, and has a lion.
The lion is majestic, gold, and on the cover it looks soft.
The lion can also fly! It has huge wings.
Their mission clues :
When waters rise beneath the moon,
Visit the Grand Lady of the Lagoon.
To find out where you need to go,
Seek out a painter named Tiepolo.
At midnight two men will tell you the time.
To the top of their tower hurry and climb.
The king of the jungle will carry you there,
Not over land but high in the air.
An angel of gold will show the way
To the sea by night, and home by day.
I like this book because it has a riddle, it is adventurous, and has a lion.
The lion is majestic, gold, and on the cover it looks soft.
The lion can also fly! It has huge wings.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 259 reviews