Friday, April 21, 2006

Crazy for the Magische Baumhaus

My kids are completely hooked on the German Magische Baumhaus (Magic Treehouse) series of books. In each book, Phillip and Anne travel to a different time or place in history and accomplish a task set for them by their friend, Morgan, who is the librarian from King Arthur's court. Along the way, they learn about the place and time they're visiting and they make new friends.

My son, NJ, likes these books so much, he begs for more chapters at bedtime and as soon as we finish one, he's ready to start another. The language is a little beyond his German comprehension but it doesn't seem to bother him and he asks lots of questions. He and ML both enjoy the pictures scattered throughout the book. So far, we've been to ancient Egypt, the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, a rain forest, visited with the dinosaurs, been to the moon, and just today attended a one-room schoolhouse on the prarie during the 1870's.

NJ likes these books so much, he has demanded I get the whole series - there are over 30 titles to date - yikes! So I will be adding more to the Alphabet Garten catalog very soon. Here is the current listing.

Interestingly, we tried reading one in English and NJ refused to listen to it. My mother had gotten him one about the first Thanksgiving in English and he was so disappointed it wasn't in German that I had to translate on the fly. Very tricky stuff - how do you say Pilgrim in German? I have no idea :) He's a particular kid and likes things just so.

No comments: