Customer Reviews

Magic Tree House Collection: Books 1-8

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am the mother of two boys, ages 3 and 5, I started to purchase audio cassettes to keep the boys quiet--for a least a few minutes -- on long car trips to grandmas house...over 2 hours away. The Magic Tree House Series has worked so well that the boys love to listen to them, over and over and over... even on short errands. The problem now, is, how do I get them out of the car?? The stories are delightful and have some historical/educational value, the vocabulary is not dummed down either. I find both boys discussing the "JAck and Annie" stories and role playing their favorite "scenes".

This CD series absolutely captivated my 4-year-old (who doesn't have the patience to sit through most TV programs, not that I'm complaining!). She would have sat and listened to the whole entire 5 CD set in one sitting if we would have let her. Osborne's adventures are laced with historical facts and are a great choice if you're planning on going for long car rides. The only drawback was that the stories tend to be a little intense in spots--I would say if your child is very sensitive, you may need to take the time to explain some story details and monitor their reaction.

My seven year old daughter received the set of CDs (books one through eight) for Christmas. She listened to books one, two, and four non-stop, in one morning. Now, two days later, she's listened to them all, some twice.

I had the first book on hand, and she followed along page by page. Later that day I went to the library and got as many of the rest of the eight that I could, and she drank them up! It was great to watch her "reading along", and I'm sure it will help her feel more confident as she begins to read chapter books.

What really amazed me though, is that my 3 and a half year old son listened as well. Though he sometimes played while he listened, he was obviously caught up in the excitement of pirates, knights, dinosaurs, and the rest.

I found the books easy to listen to, and interesting enough. The author does a great job of using her voice to distinguish whose talking. I am amazed at how well the stories kept my kids' attention for hours at a time! And introduced them to some history as well, no less.

One thing to note though, our "disc two" is labelled as though it were disc three, and vice versa. A little confusing, but we figured it out. (5 discs in all).

My 6 year old son loves the Magic Tree House books but isn't quite a good enough reader to have enough pace to get the full meaning of the story, so I bought a few book & CD sets (the first few books can come with a CD if you look around hard enough). I couldn't find any more book & CD sets so I bought the CD packs containing 8 CDs and I planned to buy the books to go along with each CD as rewards for good behavior.

When the CDs arrived - I bought the first three sets - I found that some of the stories were split between CDs so that by about the third CD it contained the end of one story and the beginning of the next as did all the CDs after that point. One of the sets didn't even identify which books were on which CD. I wrote to the publisher to explain that I didn't think this was very child friendly and were there any more individual book & CD sets available, but I have never had a response. I was disappointed with the CDs and even more disappointed with the publisher.

It may seem like a small complaint but to have my 6 year old listen to the CDs while following along with the books in bed, he would have to get out of bed and change the CD half way through, then get out of bed again and stop the CD before it went on to the next story... seems silly for the cost of one extra CD per set to get them all on their own CDs. So I sent them back and will read the books myself recording them onto a CD and he can listen to that - don't know why I didn't think of that before!

My kids and I love the Magic Tree House books! I can't give this audio book 5 stars, though, because of how Random House formatted the books on CDs. Rather than giving one CD per book, the 8 books are spread across 5 CDs. When my kids are listening to a book at bedtime, I don't want them to have to get up and change CDs halfway through a book, let alone try to find the start of a book in the middle of a CD. I wish Random house had spent the tiny bit of extra money to have one CD per book, and to print a picture of the book cover on each CD.

I'm fixing the problem by making copies for my kids, including the tracks for each book on a separate CD, and printing labels using book cover images. For those who aren't technically savvy, this isn't the best solution. Random House, please think about the audience (4-8 year old kids) before skimping like this again.

A great cd(s) to have. I've initially tried it out with children who loves to talk and can't focus long enough to listen and pick up necessary information from people around them. The interesting stories kept them focus for the duration and encourages them to recall and discuss the story later.

It also helped rekindle a particularly slow reader's, in grade school, interest in reading. He is now keen to give reading another go if he gets to listen and visually follow the words in the book.

How I wish subsequent books are also available in cds instead of just cassettees only!

The magic treehouse books are fun to read. There are big adventures in each book. The kids go back in time and do neat stuff. I like when the kids find their way back to the magic treehouse at the end of the books. I like that if they are wearing short sleeves and short pants and they are in cold weather, they find coats and things they need in the adventure. Sometimes the people can be nice or mean, but the kids always get away before the bad guys get them!

I bought this cd set for my son who is seven and loves this series. However, we have been going to the library lately and checking out the books that you can read along with. I thought that this series was that type but unfortunantely it wasn't. I did give it three stars though because my son still listens to them when he goes to bed and does like the stories. But, am very dissappointed that I am now going to have to go out and buy all the books so he can follow along. I bought these mainly to help in his reading skills and it has turned out to be more like a listening skill instead. Oh Well. The cd's are great but just wanted to warn future shoppers that it does NOT come with the books, you have to buy those seperately.

I have four children - ages 5, 3 1/2, and 19 months (twins); I bought these cd's for the main purpose of making car rides more enjoyable and they worked like a charm. My two older children are asking to listen to the stories rather than watch TV, which is such a blessing! They are even asking to listen to them when they go to bed.

The only downside is that some of the stories are split between 2 disks, which makes it difficult when they want to listen to a particular story at bedtime or if they want to listen to stories in different rooms.

Overall the set was well worth the money!

We discovered this through a Wendy's kids meal promo. Then I bought the set here at Amazon. It arrived in 2 days. What can I say? The narration is excellent! The story is simple, yet, well written to inspire your child to sit in his/her seat and use their imagination. It has given me "sanity" in my drives with the kids, with the treasured silence that has filled the air, as they listen to the cd. We've purchased the books as well, and it is great to have it to read along with. Listening to the author narrate also has made me a better story reader to my children.

My kids are 5 y.o. and 3 y.o. And they can follow the story really well. And I have a 9 month old baby, too...and the CD gets him sleeping pretty well while we drive.