My mom was wonderful. Growing up she spent plenty of time teaching me and my siblings how to read. When I was old enough to read on my own, The Magic Treehouse is the first series of books I ever discovered. Dinosaurs Before Dark had me hooked immediately. I’m not a fan of westerns but some of my fondest memories of the series come from book 10. I still picture Jack and Annie sitting around a campfire with an old cowboy eating hardtack, and them going to a saloon and seeing a player- piano. The last I read in the regular series was book 28, High Tide in Hawaii. In elementary school my dad took me to a book signing with Mary Pope Osborn. We got cool lightsabers and she signed several of my books. It was cool.

I’m not sure what this says about me, but I really loved the Fact Trackers as well, especially the one about Leprechauns and Irish Folklore. I didn’t know it at the time, but it inspired my love fore Celtic mythology that still persists to this day. It was the reason I spend several months researching Ireland as my final project for 5th grade.

The remember the Merlin Missions fondly as well, though back then they were still grouped as part of the regular series. As a 3rd grader with very protective parents Christmas in Camelot literally seemed magical. It took me to a world I never would have even dreamed of, away from the mundanity of my childhood life. Haunted Castle of Hallows Eve was a bit scary for me and in 4th grade I did a class presentation book report on Summer of the Sea Serpent. My favorite one of all time though is Blizzard of the Blue Moon. Osborne made New York in the middle of winter feel warm and comforting. In that book I could escape more than any other and it will forever keep a place in my heart.

The Bailey School Kids for me were a small step up from The Magic Tree House. It was fun read adults described as mermaids and vampires and werewolves. As a kid they really did feel like that sometimes. The most memorable entry by far is Mrs. Jeepers on Vampire Island. It was spooky and adventurous and it had three endings. It’s rare to find a book that does that at all, let alone a children’s book. As a kid it felt like one of the coolest things I had ever heard of.

In the span of weeks I read the first ten books of the Ranger’s Apprentice. I would stay up reading until I finished book after book in a single night. I feel the same way about the Brother Band Chronicles.