Mary Pope Osborne (born May 20, 1949) is an American author of children's books. She is best known for the award-winning and bestselling Magic Tree House series, which has been translated into 35 languages and has sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. Mary Pope Osborne is an ardent advocate and supporter of children's literacy, and the award-winning author of more than 100 books for children and young adults, including novels, retellings of mythology and folklore, picture books, biographies, and mysteries. Ms. Osborne is also the coauthor of the companion Magic Tree House Fact Trackers series with her husband, Will Osborne, and her sister, Natalie Pope Boyce.
Video Mary Pope Osborne
Biography
Mary Pope Osborne has written over 60 children's stories, with a variety of genres and for a range of children to young adult audiences. Her books have been named to a number of the Best Books of the Year Lists, including, School Library Journal, Parents' Magazine, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and Bank Street College. She has received honors from such organizations as the National Council of Teachers of English, The Children's Book Council, and the International Reading Association. She received the 1992 Diamond State Reading Association Award, 2005 Ludington Memorial Award from the Educational Paperback Association and the 2010 Heidelberger Leander Award. She has also received awards from the Carolina Alumni Association, the Virginia Library Association and in spring 2013 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ms. Osborne served two separate terms as president of the Authors Guild and also chaired its Children's Book Committee. She has since traveled extensively in the states and throughout the world, visiting schools and speaking on issues related to reading and books. In 2011, she attended the International Tokyo Film Festival for the premier of the Magic Tree House anime file and visited schools in the tsunami-hit area of Japan. The film grossed 5.7 million dollars; Osborne donated all her proceeds into her educational works.
She was profiled on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams for her continued efforts to get books into the hands of underserved children on a Magic Tree House themed tour bus. She spoke of the pressure she feels as an author that children look up to, "for a child to value someone who writes books is so extraordinary."
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Magic Tree House series in 2012, Ms. Osborne created a Magic Tree House Classroom Adventures Program. Ms. Osborne's mission with Classroom Adventures is to inspire children to read and to love reading while simultaneously helping kids to read at grade level by the end of 3rd grade}. Free of charge, the program provides a set of online educational resources for teachers and allows for Title 1 schools to apply for free Magic Tree House books. Under Classroom Adventures, Ms. Osborne, in partnership with the First Book organization in Washington, DC, has donated hundreds of thousands of Magic Tree House books to underserved schools.
Childhood
Mary Pope Osborne grew up in a military family, alongside her sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, her twin brother, Bill, and younger brother, Michael. Her father's career required the family to travel rather extensively and regularly move. Places Osborne lived as a child included Saltzburg, Austria, Oklahoma, and Virginia. Osborne herself says of the experience: "Moving was never traumatic for me, but staying in one place was." After her father retired, her family settled in a small town in North Carolina. Osborne grew invested in the local community theater spending all her free time there.
College Years, Traveling, and Early Career
Mary Pope Osborne initially studied drama at the University of North Carolina. In her junior year, however, she switched to a major in religion with a focus on comparative religions.
After graduating from college, Osborne spent some time traveling again. For a while, she camped out in a cave on the island of Crete. Following this, Osborne joined a small group of Europeans heading to the East. Their journeys took Osborne through 11 different countries throughout Asia, including Iraq, Iran, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Pakistan. Remarking on her travels Osborne said, ""That journey irrevocably changed me. Experience was gathered that serves as a reference point every day of my life. I encountered worlds of light and worlds of darkness--and planted seeds of the imagination that led directly to my being an author of children's books."
After her travels Osborne held jobs including medical assistant, travel agent, drama teacher, bartender, and as an assistant editor for a children's magazine.
Writing and Publication
Osborne's travels and experiences have factored largely into her own writing, while her writing has allowed her to experience some of the thrills of traveling, as she said, "Without even leaving my home, I've traveled around the globe, learning about the religions of the world."
Osborne's writing career began "one day, out of the blue" when she wroteRun, Run As Fast As You Can in 1982. The book itself is semi-autobiographical in nature, according to Osborne: "The girl was a lot like me and many of the incidents in the story were similar to happenings in my childhood." The book served as the starting point for Osborne's writing career. Her early work received mixed reviews. Her work includes young adult novels, picture books, retellings of mythology and fairy tales, biographies, mysteries, a six part series of the Odyssey, a book of American Tall Tales, and a book for young readers about the major world religions.
Osborne says that she can work on Magic Tree House up to 12 hours a day and seven days a week and has used space at shared office space, The Writer's Room. She has modeled her writing after Hemingway by trying to be simple and direct and is "noted for writing clear, lively, well-paced prose in both her stories and her informational books."
Family
Osborne was married to Will Osborne in 1976, meeting him after seeing him appear in a play. She does not have any children, which she has explained as "I got too busy."
Her lakefront home features a tree house.
Maps Mary Pope Osborne
Magic Tree House series
Mary Pope Osborne's most prolific work has been the Magic Tree House series. The series has sold more than 134 million books worldwide since its debut in 1992. Osborne originally planned to write only four books for the Magic Tree House series and then based on fan response did four additional books before deciding to keep the series going for an indefinite length. Owing to the successful sales of the books, Osborne for many years resisted efforts to commercialize the characters and books wanting them to live in the imaginations of children.
The first of the Magic Tree House books, Dinosaurs Before Dark, was published in 1992. She was initially inspired to write the books while working in a teen homeless shelter and realizing that for the teens writing themselves into stories taking place in the Himalayas or Serengeti had a major effect on the teens. Osborne says she tried writing the book seven different ways before finding a way that worked." It introduces the main characters of Jack and Annie, a brother and sister duo of adventurers who are transported to different areas of time thanks to the titular magic treehouse. The first book established the format for feature books and introduced recurring characters Morgan le Fay and Merlin, as part of the Arthurian motifs. Osborne says she is more like Jack but wishes she was more like Annie.
Osborne tends to place small cliffhangers at the end of each chapter, which has been highlighted as one of the major reasons for the appeal of the books within their target age group. Another important factor in their success is the educational nature of the series. The books are cited for their ability to interest students in history and Osborne's usage of vocabulary encourages young readers to learn new words.
Magic Tree House chapter books 11 to 16 were all released during 1998. Otherwise about two volumes have been completed annually.
Magic Tree House Nonfiction Fact Trackers & Family Ties
In 2000, the first of the Magic Tree House Research Guides, now known as "Fact Trackers", was released. These pieces serve as companions to the main line of books. Each Fact Tracker specifically details the information and research behind the history described in its companion Magic Tree House book and serve as tools to help kids who to want to learn more about the events depicted in the books. The Fact Trackers were created by Mary's husband Will Osborne.
As with the fiction titles, these nonfiction companion titles feature illustrations done by Sal Murdocca.
Mary loves working with her family and thinks of Magic Tree House as a family affair.
She has also teamed up with close friends Randy Courts and Jenny Laird who compose and write the Magic Tree House musicals with Will Osborne.
Adaptations
Magic Tree House Children's Theatre
The Magic Tree House brand has taken on other forms. A full-scale musical adaptation was created by Will Osborne; Magic Tree House: The Musical, premiered in September 2007. Based on the Magic Tree House book Christmas in Camelot, the Musical toured 54 cities throughout 2008-2009.
A planetarium show; "Magic Tree House: Space Mission", also created by Will Osborne, is produced and presented exclusively at the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
In 2011, Will Osborne collaborated with New Orleans composer Allen Toussaint and "Ain't Misbehavin'" co-creator Murray Horwitz to write "A Night in New Orleans", a musical adaptation of Magic Tree House #42: A Good Night for Ghosts about the life of Louis Armstrong. The show features an ensemble cast and live jazz band. It premiered in 2012 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and was shown free to every Newark 4th grade student.
Magic Tree House Kids Shows are theatrical adaptations of selected titles in the Magic Tree House series designed specifically for performance by kids. To date, children's shows have been created by playwright and composer team Randy Courts and Jenny Laird in collaboration with Will Osborne based on the following Magic Tree House books: Dinosaurs Before Dark, The Knight at Dawn, Pirates Past Noon, A Ghost Tale for Christmastime, A Night in New Orleans, and Stage Fright on a Summer Night, a new children's show based on the life of William Shakespeare, set to premiere at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre in October 2017.
Audio and braille versions of the books are available as well as companion programs aimed at educators using the books to illustrate history and writing skills. However, Magic Tree House merchandise is rarely offered, and even then usually only for an educational purpose. For example, a small selection of T-shirts, bags, and pencils are available in support of Osborne's alma mater at the UNC Morehead Planetarium.
Magic Tree House: The Movie
In 2016, Lionsgate acquired the film rights with a script by Will Osborne and Jenny Laird. The movie would primarily contain plot elements from Book 29, "Christmas in Camelot."
Other books
Mary Pope Osborne has written many books outside the Magic Tree House series.
- Run, Run As Fast As You Can (Random House Children's Books, 1982)
- The Deadly Power of Medusa (Scholastic, 1988), Will and Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Steve Sullivan
- Jason and the Argonauts (Scholastic, 1988), Will and Mary Pope Osborne, illus. Steve Sullivan
- Favorite Greek Myths (Scholastic, 1989), retold by Osborne, illus. Troy Howell
- American Tall Tales (Knopf, 1991), retold by Osborne, illus. Michael McCurdy
- Spider Kane and the Mystery under the May-apple (Knopf, 1992), illus. Victoria Chess -- middle-grade chapter book, first of the Spider Kane series
- Mermaid Tales from around the World (Scholastic, 1993), retold by Osborne, illus. Troy Howell
- Haunted Waters (Candlewick, 1994), young-adult fantasy novel
- Favorite Norse Myths (Scholastic, 1996), retold by Osborne, illus. Troy Howell
- Rocking Horse Christmas (Scholastic, 1997), illus. Ned Bittinger
- Favorite Medieval Tales (Scholastic, 1998), retold by Osborne, illus. Troy Howell
- Standing in the Light: the captive diary of Catharine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763 (Dear America series, Scholastic, 1998)
- My Secret War: the World War II diary of Madeline Beck (Dear America, Scholastic, 2000)
- My Brother's Keeper (My America series, Scholastic, 2000), first of three Virginia's Civil War Diary
- Kate and the Beanstalk (Atheneum Books, 2000), picture book illus. Giselle Potter -- adaptation of the traditional fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk"
- Tales from the Odyssey (Hyperion Books, 2002 to 2005), illus. Troy Howell -- six children's novels adapted from Odyssey
- Tales from the Odyssey (Hyperion, 2010), a two-volume edition
- Moonhorse (Dragonfly Books, 2010), chapter book
- Johnny Appleseed
References
External links
- Official Website: http://www.MTHClassroomAdventures.org
- http://www.MagicTreeHouse.com
- Mary Pope Osborne at publisher Penguin Random House/Random House Children's Books
- Magic Tree House: Space Mission show at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
- Mary Pope Osborne at Library of Congress Authorities, with 169 catalog records
- Will Osborne at Library of Congress Authorities
- Natalie Pope Boyce at Library of Congress Authorities, with 37 catalog records
Source of article : Wikipedia
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