Magic Tree House Books Hit the Big Screen

If you are in your thirties or younger, chances are you have memories of the one of the most cherished and recognizable children’s book series world-wide, the “Magic Tree House” books. Fans of the series will soon transport like Jack and Annie from the pages to the big screen. Lionsgate Motion Picture Group announced on February 4 that they acquired the rights to all 54 books in the series by award-winning author Mary Pope Osborne.

The legendary children’s series follows siblings Jack and Annie on their magical adventures with librarian Morgana. In the first book, Jack and Annie discover a tree house filled with books that, upon reading, have the power to transport them through time and space. Readers follow Jack and Annie as they use reference books, solve problems and work together to help those in need. Originally published in 1992, the series is most popular among the upper elementary set, though fun to read at any age.

Lionsgate plans for the first film to be based on the first Merlin Mission book, Magic Tree House #29: Christmas in Camelot. In this book, Jack and Annie return to the tree house after having outgrown it. Osborne serves as executive producer on the film and her husband, Will Osborne, is co-screenwriter. Lionsgate has an impressive history with bringing children’s and young adult book series to the big screen. These films include Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent.

No set date on a release of the film or what lucky actors will portray Jack and Annie, but we will anxiously wait to find out more. Until then, we’ll just have to go back and re-read the series.

* Bookmans is your store to explore. If you’d like to read or re-read any “Magic Tree House” book, come browse our shelves. If you are looking for a particular title, give us a call and we’ll check our shelves for you, but we hope you’ll come just to hang out.