Customer Reviews

Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

My name is George. I am eight years old, and I am in 3rd grade. Thetitle is Dinosaur Before Dark and the author's name is Mary PopeOshorne. Jack and Annie went to the Magic Tree House. So Jack and Annie saw a lot of books.Jack picked up one book and put it in his backpack. When Annie and Jack came out they saw a dinosaur from a long time ago. They saw a Pterandon flying around the Magic Tree House.Annie and Jack took a flight from the Pterandon. Jack and Annie went to the past where dinosaurs lived. The dinosaurs that Jack and Annie saw were Pterandon,Triceratops, duck-billed dinosaur, and Tyrannosaurs Rex. When they saw the Tyrannosaurs Rex, he tried to eat them.

I liked this book because they went back in time to explore where was the dinosaur live. Yes I will recommend to other children to read this book to the 3rd graders. I give this story 5 stars. END

This book was recommended as a good read for our 8 year old who does not enjoy reading. We found this to be an interesting book that reads fast and keeps you hanging onto each word wondering what will happen next. All four of our children enjoyed this book (ages 4 1/2,6,8,and 12). We had to go out and get several other Magic Treehouse books. We can't wait to see where Annie and Jack go next.

I bought this book for my 4 year old who is wild about dinosaurs. He loves being read to and needed something a little more advanced than picture books. This book was a great start because the subject matter was something he was interested in, he could easily comprehend what was being read, and it could be finished in one sitting. There were enough pictures in the book to maintain his interest.

After reading this book, we have embarked on a new Magic Tree House adventure a day. My son looks forward to this time so much. Thank goodness the books are at the library! The books can be read by a parent in about a 30 minute sitting. I recorded Dinosaurs Before Dark on tape for my son to listen to any time since it is his favorite of the series so far.

Also to extend the reading activity at home, we created a Cretaceous period dinosaur diorama. My son loves acting out the story with his own dinosaurs...

The book is about a boy and a girl that found a tree house. Itis magic and takes them to places like this one, when they went toprehistoric times. My favorite part was when they were riding on a teradactyl. I am seven and a half years old.

My five year old son loved this book so much that after I finished reading it to him, he carried the book around with him for days. The story line catches the young person's attention quickly, and holds the attention from chapter to chapter. The suspense about what will happen to Jack in the dinosaur chase is just enough fear to keep the attention, but not so much that they want you to stop reading. When we finished one chapter he wanted to go straight to the next chapter. He was asking any grown up, even his big brother to read to him. If you have a child who you need to peek their interest in reading, this is a great book to start with.

These are the books that finally got my 8 year son, who'd been very unwilling to read by himself, into reading. He likes the different settings for each book (dinosaurs, pirates, wild west) and that they're fast paced. To an adult, the books are too simplistic, but they're just right for the new reader who's looking for adventure/action stories with a little bit of mystery tossed in for good measure.

I thought my son was ready to try reading on his own and picked this book more or less at random. He read it in one sitting and asked for more. I bought him the second and third books in the series and he read them in the same day. I bought the rest of the series and had to ration them out one book a day or he would have read them all at once. Now he's a regular littlebook worm and turns off the TV and puts away his toys every time I give him a new book.

I gave this book (and the whole series) two stars for providing an easy transition from picture books to chapter books.

I did not give it more than two stars, though, because the books are sloppy and shallow, and their grammar is horrible. (Since I was reading the books to my son, I could at least make corrections on the fly.) The characters are not only flat stereotypes (scholarly, rational brother and his emotional, impulsive sister), but in the majority of the stories, they are almost completely passive. Things simply happen to them. There is little display of ingenuity or independent problem solving on the part of these two "heroes".

It is too bad that the author did not show more concern about her craft. If she had, my son and I would probably still be reading her books. Instead, after getting our toes wet with the first few volumes, we quickly moved on to better material (namely, Dragon Slayers' Academy).

My 5 year old daughter has fallen in love with the Magic Tree House books. If only there were more books like this. She had not been particularly interested in dinosaurs, but after this book she clearly wants to learn more. As a father who reads to my daughters every night, I think that it is a pleasure to find an author who has managed to give a lot of information, while writing a fun story that really awakens the imagination of children.

I bought this book originally for a 7 year old, but then my 4 year who was just getting into reading picked it up and started reading it. After that the 10 started reading it! There was a big battle over who got to read the book. I ended up buying the whole series. They read them on the way to school, on the way home, whenever there was time to pick up the book. All 3 kids loved it! I recommemd this book, and series highly!