Magic Treehouse #14 Dragon King

Magic Tree House #14 Day of the Dragon King (1998) by Mary Pope Osborne
Reading level 2nd grade - 5th grade
Strongly recommend

Eight-year old Jack and younger sister Annie have discovered a tree house in the woods behind their house in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. It belongs to a magical librarian from King Arthur’s time named Morgan le Fay who travels through time to collect books (This is the premise for each of the books).

In this book the brother and sister, considered Master Librarians, are to travel to ancient China when books were written on bamboo strips and the Great Wall was being built. They are to find the first writing of the Chinese legend before the Imperial Library is destroyed-the emperor is having books burned.

The children arrive in the strange land appropriately dressed as Chinese citizens and make their way into the walled city on the back of an ox cart driven by a farmer who used to be a scholar before the emperor took over. The children learn that books are being destroyed because the new leader doesn’t want people to have knowledge or think for themselves.

The children find the book, which had fallen off a stack about to be burned. Annie grabs it and Jack puts it in his bag. Annie and Jack dodge arrows while being chased by the angry men of the emperor. They run to a tomb to hide knowing the men won’t follow, get lost inside, and through a magical experience find their way out. When the children get back to the tree house, Jack wishes them back to Frog Creek where they hand over the bamboo book to Morgan who informs them of their next adventure.

*Fairly quick read, appeals to both boys and girls. I did not have to read the other books to understand this one.

Here is the Website to the Magic Tree House website with games, author, and news sections. http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/