Survival Guide - Book Review

Magic Tree House

Survival Guide

By: Mary Pope Osborne

and

Natalie Pope Boyce

Book Review

The Magic Tree House Survival Guide is a pretty awesome little book to read. It pulls in bits and pieces from the Magic Tree House book series as it walks you through some basic tips on survival, like what to do if you get lost, and some more complicated survival tips, like how to survive a lion attack! While most of our children don't need to know what to do if a lion attacks or tigers, we all want them to know what they should do if they were to become lost. One of my worst fears as a parent is that one of my children will become lost on a hike and not know what to do.

I love this whole series! It's great adventure books for boys and girls with a dash of magic and easy to read chapters. Each book, including this one, can easily be broken up by chapter or section and read bit by bit each day. They're able to drag you into the story quickly and keep you interested which is just what's needed for young readers in my opinion.

ECJ and YCJ both read this book without me and I read it to Peanut. No one took longer than a week to read it and each and every one of us enjoyed it. Did you know that experts say hugging a tree when you're lost will help you calm down? I didn't either until I read this book. I also didn't know that tigers attack from behind! The things you can learn from a book!

Honestly, I picked this book up on a whim from our local library. It wasn't on my "books to read" list, I hadn't noticed it before when looking into the series, and had no clue that it even existed! But, I am so very glad that I grabbed it off of the shelf! I didn't grab it because we were doing any survival skills for science (although, we will be next summer), I didn't grab it because someone suggested it to me knowing that my family reads the series, and I didn't grab it for the facts it contained. I saw it and thought to myself, "Oh, this could be fun to read!" And it was!

If you have a fan of the Magic Tree House series I would suggest you pick this little gem up as well. You can get it relatively inexpensively on Amazon here (no, I am NOT an affiliate). There's also puzzle books and journals and so much more that I didn't know existed with this series to be found on Amazon here. And I often use the lesson plans for each book that can be found here.

Yes, I love this series! And I cannot wait for Peanut to begin reading them on her own and enjoying them as YCJ and ECJ did. I will be purchasing the whole set, even if it's book by book, for Peanut starting this upcoming spring. We'll begin by reading them out loud together and I know eventually she'll take over the reading from me. I just may get the journal and a few puzzle books as well! But one book that will be gracing our shelves here is the Magic Tree House Survival Guide, because I know that it's a book we'll return to again and again while we go through our lives. Who knows, maybe one of the campers will go to Africa one of these days and need to know what you should do in case a lion attacks!