Magic Tree House: Mammoth to the Rescue
New Stone Age. In the seventh Magic Tree House adventure, Jack and Annie find themselves in an Ice Age landscape wearing only their swimsuits! They are looking for the third of the objects their friend Morgan le Fay needs to be released from the spell which binds her. As before, the author introduces a few facts in a simple adventure story. The children nearly wake up a hibernating cave bear, explore a cave decorated with wall paintings of prehistoric animals, put on warm clothes made of reindeer skin and examine some stone age artifacts. Finally, they fall into a trap for mammoths and are rescued by a Cro-Magnon shaman and, leaving historical reality behind, are given a lift home by a woolly mammoth, providing they can escape the marauding sabre-tooth tiger…
Philippe Masson’s black and white drawings are simple and lively and give clear pictures of Stone Age life—the interior of a cave dwelling, for example. Children of 5 plus should enjoy it—as, indeed, they do (see Louis’s review, below).
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Annie and Jack were walking in the woods and saw a big tree. This turned out to be the magic tree house, and it took them to the Ice Age. They met the mammoth and the bone guys and the bear and I think it was really good because it was kind of adventurey and I really want to go on an adventure too. I thought it was really cool when Annie and Jack saw the sabre-toothed tiger because once I saw a snake with the same pattern as the tiger. I would like to read lots more of these books. I like Annie and Jack because in every one Jack says ‘let’s go back’ and Annie is braver is Jack because I think that Jack is scared to go out of the tree house. But he does always turn out to be brave because he follows Annie. And about Peanut the mouse, I like the way Annie called it Peanut.
