Mary Pope Osborne

This may be my favorite Magic Tree House book yet. Jack and Annie are sent to Depression-era New York City to find a unicorn (SPOILER: If you didn't guess, it's in the Cloisters museum, although there's a great diversion where Jack & Annie try to go to the Bronx Zoo). Jack & Annie take a subway and a cab on their quest as they have to fight against a blizzard and a pair of dark wizards en route to their goal. What's great about this book is that the fantasy and adventure elements are blended show more so well with an honest portrayal of the poverty and desperation of the Depression. show less

Mary Pope Osborne, creator of the immensely popular Magic Tree House chapter-book series, offers a poetic description of small town America on the 4th of July in this lovely picture-book. An extended family enjoys the day at Memorial Park, participating in various community activities - fundraisers, contests and games, eating good food - until it is time for the evening concert. After performances of some of America's most celebrated patriotic songs, the fireworks begin, and the entire show more audience is awed. The day draws to a close, and as the family are driving home, the boy-narrator wishes America a happy birthday...

Pairing an engaging narrative from Osborne with luminous artwork from illustrator Peter Catalanotto, Happy Birthday, America offers a snapshot of one rural community on an important day. Apparently Osborne's narrative is based on a 4th of July she spent in a real small town in Pennsylvania, the same town that Catalanotto traveled to, on another 4th, to get inspiration for his artwork. Given that this so, I find it rather disturbing that some have criticized this book for not being "diverse" enough. Our country is diverse, and part of what makes it diverse is that it is made up of a myriad of regions, states, cities, and communities, all of which have a different character and makeup. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the rural Euro-American community depicted here, anymore than there is something wrong with the urban, largely African-American and Latino communities depicted in the books of author/illustrators like Faith Ringgold. Leaving that issue aside - and it really should be a non-issue - this is a lovely work, one suffused with a sense of familial, communal and national love. Happy Birthday, indeed! show less

Inspired by a blurb about Kit Carson's daughter following a marriage with an Arapaho girl, Osborne has crafted a memorable tale of Adaline Falling Star (a blend of her Christian and Native American names) and her quest to find out how exactly a mixed-race girl like herself fits into her world. Kids will enjoy the story, particularly when she befriends a faithful mutt along the way and narrowly escapes many toils on the winding path to find her father, who she is convinced has forsaken her. show more Adults and teachers will enjoy the book as well, especially the magical, sparse prose and the not-too-heavy-handed treatment of the important theme of racial identity for this girl who straddles two cultures, yet fits neatly into neither, show less

This early picture-book from Mary Pope Osborne, better known these days as the creator of the immensely popular Magic Tree House chapter-book series, offers a simplified retelling of the classic French fairy-tale of Beauty and the Beast, retaining the basic structure of the original by Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont - the rich merchant with three sons and three daughters, the family's unexpected reduction to rural poverty and the futile journey to recoup some of their losses, the palace in the show more forest and the fateful plucking of the rose, Beauty's subsequent self-sacrifice, and her life with the Beast - but greatly reducing the text, and adapting it in a rather modern, colloquial fashion.

The result, unfortunately, is a narrative that is oddly disjointed, with dialogue that had me giggling at its unintentional hilarity:

"Tell me! What are you doing - stealing my roses?" yelled the Beast again. "My roses are my prize possession!"
"Oh, I'm sorry! Forgive me! Forgive me!" cried the poor man.
"I won't forgive you!" roared the Beast. "You will die for this!"
"Oh, please, no!" cried the merchant. "I only wanted one rose for my youngest daughter!"
"You have daughters?" asked the Beast.

I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but the foregoing put me strongly in mind of some slapstick comedies I have seen ("No! No! No! - Yes! Yes! Yes!"), and certainly didn't communicate the sense of terror - or, at the very least, menace - that should accompany the Beast's first entrance into the story.

Sadly, the lackluster text is in no way redeemed by Winslow Pels' illustrations, which I found rather dreary, and oddly out of step, stylistically speaking, with the story. What on earth was up with Beauty's hair?!? Why, in the musical scene, was she playing an accordion and tambourine? There was one image - the one in which Beauty's father struggles through the snowy forest - that I found appealing, but one painting simply isn't enough to save this venture! Unless you're determined to read every version of Beauty and the Beast on which you can lay your hands, skip this one, and try the lovely retelling done by Marianna Mayer instead. show less