Viking Ships at Sunrise (Magic Tree House #15): 02/01/10

I'll probably be wrapping up my series of reviews of books from the Magic Tree House soon. My son has become a strong enough reader that he now reads these books by himself. With all my other reading I'm not sure I can keep up with them as he tears through this series.

Viking Ship Before Sunrise is the third book in the lost works series. This time Jack and Annie have to go back to an island off the coast of Ireland to rescue an illuminated manuscript before the island is over run by Vikings.

There's a lot of history and art history tossed into this volume but at 75 pages there just isn't much time to go any sort of detail. Jack and Annie learn how to live like monks (briefly), learn about the process of making an illuminated manuscript (briefly), learn about the Viking invasion and nearly experience it first hand. With the emphasis put on the danger there's little time for anything else. The adventure here didn't feel as well integrated as it is in a later volume, Tonight on the Titanic.

Other Magic Tree House books reviewed here:

• Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1)
• The Knight at Dawn (Magic Tree House #2)
• Mummies in the Morning (Magic Tree House #3)
• Pirates Past Noon (Magic Tree House #4)
• Night of the Ninjas (Magic Tree House #5)
• Afternoon on the Amazon (Magic Tree House #6)
  
• Dolphins at Daybreak (Magic Tree House #9)
  
• Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10)
  
• Lions at Lunchtime (Magic Tree House #11)
  
• Polar Bears Past Bedtime (Magic Tree House #12)
  
• Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House #13)
• Day of the Dragon King (Magic Tree House #14)
• Viking Ships Before Sunrise (Magic Tree House #15)
• Hour of the Olympics (Magic Tree House #16)
• Tonight on the Titanic (Magic Tree House #17)
• Buffalo Before Breakfast (Magic Tree House #18)
• Tigers at Twilight (Magic Tree House #19)
• Dingoes at Dinnertime (Magic Tree House #20)
• Civil War on Sunday (Magic Tree House #21)
• Revolutioanry War on Wednesday (Magic Tree House #22)
• Twister on Tuesday (Magic Tree House #23)
• Earthquake in the Early Morning (Magic Tree House #24)
• Stage Fright on a Summer Night (Magic Tree House #25)
• Good Morning, Gorillas (Magic Tree House #26)
• Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House #27)
• High Tide in Hawaii (Magic Tree House #28)
• Dragon of the Red Dawn (Magic Tree House #37)

Comments (4)

Comment #1: Tuesday, February, 2, 2010 at 01:52:20

Greytfriend

I thought the Titanic and Civil War stories were suprisingly moving, even for an adult. The rest of the stories fluctuated between 3 and 5 stars for me. I generally enjoyed the stories with animals the most. Of the ones you haven't read yet, maybe try Civil War and the one with gorillas. I also just read the first Merlin Mission, #29, and it has a lot of wonderful traditional fantasy elements that you might enjoy. I liked thinking about how our little guys will use it as a frame of reference for all of their future reading about Camelot, fairy circles, etc.

Comment #2: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 11:50:15

Pussreboots

During the holidays we were reading two or three Magic Tree House books a week. My son got up to #27 (Thanksgiving on Thursday) before deciding he needed a break. I made it up to #28 (High Tide in Hawaii). I am spacing out the reviews to avoid clogging my blog with nothing but Magic Tree House reviews.