Mary Pope Osborne is an American author of children's books and audiobook narrator. She is best known as the author of the Magic Tree House series, which as of 2017 sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. Both the series and Osborne have won awards, including for Osborne's charitable efforts at promoting children's literacy. One of four children, Osborne moved around in her childhood before attending the University of North Carolina. Following college, Osborne traveled before moving to New York City. She somewhat spontaneously began to write, and her first book was published in 1982. She went on to write a variety of other children's and young adult books before starting the Magic Tree House series in 1992. Osborne's sister Natalie Pope Boyce has written several compendium books to the Magic Tree House series, sometimes with Osborne's husband Will Osborne.
It's hard to believe that I have already been along on 45 adventures with Jack and Annie! If you ever hear anyone say that you can't learn something from children's books then please show them this series. As with all of Jack and Annie's missions, they come in a cluster of 4; A Crazy Day with Cobras is the first in this four part series.
While walking home from school Jack and Annie run into a very distraught Teddy and Kathleen, whom have been on many past missions with them. Teddy had gotten a little over zealous with a simple spell from Morgan La Fay's book of magic while she was away and has turned several things to stone. Penny, Merlin's pet penguin is a statue as well. Teddy and Kathleen are now trying to reverse the spell's magic but they need Jack and Annie's help to collect the items needed to free Penny from her stony prison. The siblings travel to India on a mission of love. Their love for Penny, Teddy, Kathleen and Merlin. Along their way they witness other displays of devotion and learn a bit of history in the process.
This one starts the four book set in which Jack and Annie must travel and find items for a spell reversal spell after Teddy accidentally turns Penny into a statue. The travel to India in the 1600's and see the Taj Mahal, and receive an emerald cut like a rose. They are also given a potion to make them small. The fact tracker for this is Snakes and Other Reptiles
A Crazy Day with Cobras (Magic Tree House #45) by Mary Pope Osborne Osborne, M. (2011). A Crazy Day with Cobras (Vol. 45).
Audience: ages 6-9
Jack and Annie are at it again! This time they travel to Mogul, India to face the Great Mogul who built the Taj Mahal. They are daring and creative in their attempt to defeat the Mogul as they do their research on how the Taj Mahal was constructed in order to retrieve an rose-shaped emerald that is needed to release their friend Penny the Penguin from the spell he is under. Jack and Annie run into numerous upsets on their mission, from saving baby elephants, and defeating the giant cobras!
Discussion Questions:
1. People are not always what they seem. How did you feel about the Great Mogul in the beginning of the story compared to your feelings about him at the end of the story?
2. What does the emerald rose stand for? Explain
3. How are parades in India different than the parades that you have ever been to?
4.When Jack and Annie were in the presence of the Great Mogul, there were various social rules that they had to follow, like being silent, bowing, sitting still, and being respectful. When are there times in your own life that it is important to follow these rules?
5. Describe how Jack and Annie escaped the Cobra. What does this tell you about the characteristics of Cobras?
Another one we read while snowed in :) We LOVED this one! This is one of my personal favorites. It was soooooo exciting. Jack and Annie are on a mission to Mogul India to face the Great Mogul who built the Taj Mahal. Jack and Annie race through the street of India on an escaped elephant's back and manage to save the elephant and themselves from death at the hands of the Mogul and his guards. They find a way to appeal to the Mogul, and learn all about why he had the Taj Mahal constructed in the first place and a bit of history about it. We all thought it was one of the best Magic Tree House books we've read so far (and we've a lot!).
A Crazy Day with Cobras was written by Mary Pope Osborne. The characters are Anne and Jack. This story took place in the rain forest on January 11 2011 in. Anne and Jack where having a dream about seeing cobras and they woke up in a rain forest and went out and was looking for a new plan for not getting caught by their parents while they was trying to find cobras in the forest. Their mom finally came outside and didn't want them to hunt/look for cobras because she said that they were dangerous. Anne and jack where always looking for things to get for a new invention that they knew that they would get into trouble for by their parents. Jack was always the suspicious one that would dream about things that he would think he would wake up in the dream in reality. Anne was the one that was scared and that thought she would get ate by some animal one day and in one other book they were playing a bored game and she had a dream about it and some other animal coming after her and she went to go sleep with her brother jack. I would really recommend that you read this book because it is very interesting and you wouldn't regret it because it would make your time worthwhile during your journey reading it. A crazy day with cobras is a very good book hope you like it! It takes you to India to see the Taj Mahal and get to learn about a King cobra too.
The story I read was #45 of magic tree house. It was about Annie and Jack. They both are brother and sister. Merlin,or Morgan Le Fay gives them missions to find objects. This story is about a brother and sister and they need to find a emerald rose to release their friend Penny the penguin. Freddy,by accident was looking in a spell book,and when Penny was walking in he accidently turned her into stone.
When they made a wish to go to their location the tree house spinned then stopped. They found a humongous city with a palace in the background. The guard stopped them and he said,"Did you bring any gifts for the Great Mogul"?Annie said yes. When it was their turn they gave him Jacks project that he did in school. The Great Mogul was pleased. He gave them the emerald rose and an elephant.
They released the elephant back to the wild because she had a child. As soon as they were walking Jack tripped and lost the emerald rose. Then Annie found it. She found it in a king cobra nest.Then they used the potion that their 2 friends gave them.That potion turned them small,but getting the emerald rose was a failure because the daddy snake came. The elephant that they let go saved them and they got to get the emerald rose.
They got in the tree house and returned home,and they got to release their friend Penny. They probrably are going to have another mission.Well,you'll never know!
My 6 yr old is becoming a voracious reader and his teacher recommended this series so I picked up a few from the library. My son loves it. Magic and fun and adventure rolled into a chapter book that's easy to read, yet challenging enough that he's not bored. Many of these are educational as well, focusing on a particular point in history such as a president's reign, or a location, like Ireland in this one, which goes really well with his geography and history lessons. He's loving it, and already has said these are the books he wants to read for the challenge. Overall a great step into chapter books for the advanced reader.
I recently finished A Crazy day with Cobras by Mary Pope Osborne. in this book they travel to ancient India. I loved this book just like the others in the series. My favorite part was when they shrunk to get the emerald. Mary Pope Osborne does a great job with the plot of her books. From beginning to end I understood every single detail. Jack and Annie are such great characters and there actions related to the events in the book so well. Overall, I give this book four stars.
I liked this book because crazy things happen and you think they aren't going to survive but they survive! And sometimes you think they are going to mess up but they don't! At some points in the book, you think they won't complete their mission but they do complete the mission. When they go back to the tree house, they almost always make a change in the world they were at and there's always a happy ending!
Davey: "I liked all the animals. I liked when they get small and chased by the cobra. I liked when they read about the tiger. I learned that India has really dangerous animals, but some are nice, so we have to watch out."
I took my 7 year old grandson to the library to make a Bee Hotel as a way to help the bees repopulate and pollinate. Of course, you can't go to the library without looking at the books. My grandson picked A Crazy Day With Cobras to take home for his mom to read to him. About a week later, mom called me and asked me to renew the book. My grandson wasn't ready to give it up and wanted his mom to read it to him again. Okay, a book that a 7 year old wants to hear over again has to be checked out by grandma. So when I finally got the book back to take to the library, I decided to read it first.
This book is one book from a series called Magic Tree House, #45 to be specific. The Tree House appeared in the woods where Jack and his sister, Annie, found it and determined that it was magic. The Tree House belonged to Morgan le Fay from Camelot. Morgan and Merlin have sent Jack and Annie on missions using the Tree House as their transport.
In A Crazy Day With Cobras, Jack and Annie are sent to India to find an emerald shaped like a rose. Jack and Annie pose as ambassadors and meet The Mogul. After presenting him with a gift, they are allowed to chose a gift from among many jewels. The emerald shaped like a rose is one of the choices. So Jack and Annie have found what they came for. But the story doesn't end there. The author has a wonderful way of adding geography, history and science into the tale. Jack and Annie are asked to meet the Mogul. The guards take them to the meeting place which is the Taj Mahal. We the reader are given some details about the Taj Mahal, the marble it was made from, the special gems formed to be flowers and what and who it was made for. We also learned about Asian elephants, how they are different from African elephants and how both are endangered due to their ivory. And, of course, we got information on the King Cobra. If you want to know how all of those fit into the story, you'll have to get the book.
As for me, I'm interested in taking more of these missions in the Magic Tree house.
In A Crazy Day with Cobras, Jack and Annie go on another time-traveling mission using the magic tree house. This time, they're sent to India during the time of the Mughal Empire to recover a powerful emerald, one of four objects needed to save their beloved pet, Penny the penguin, who has been turned to stone by a spell. Disguised as members of a royal court, Jack and Annie find themselves in a beautiful but dangerous world filled with elephants, palaces, and snake charmers. Their mission becomes more urgent when they encounter real cobras and must outsmart them to stay safe. Through this, they learn about bravery, loyalty, and the importance of staying calm in the face of fear. The book blends history, adventure, and a bit of magic, while also introducing readers to Indian culture and the Mughal dynasty in an accessible and exciting way.
This book is tailored to second to fourth grade readers and can be used during independent reading or reading groups. This book has many characteristics that make it a formula fiction book. First, the book is part of the Magic Treehouse series, which means there are predictable settings, plots, characters in each book. This formula helps students who are struggling with reading because they are able to predict what will happen next in the story, and this helps to build their confidence as readers.
So I read this book in french, and when I read it the names of the characters were Tom and Léa not Annie and Jack as others have been saying in their reviews which makes me a bit confused! Are the names different in french ?
Anyway so Teddy, an enchanter of sorts accidentally turns Pirouli (not Penny according to what I read) the penguin into stone and he asks the children to look for certain items to undo the spell before Merlin, the great sorcerer, gets to know. The first thing the kids have to look for is an emerald in the shape of a rose in India in 152 B.C
The children teleport there in that time in the past using their magical treehouse. They penetrate the Red Fort in disguise, meet the Grand Mughal King (I hope I said that right) and find the stone! However, Léa also helps save an elephant from captivity, reunites it with it's baby and cross paths with a deadly cobra and get mixed up with shrinking potions before the elephant saves them and they return back to their century using the magical treehouse!
As with all MAGIC TREEHOUSE books, the writing itself is nothing special and the character development is minimal at best. But (and this is a big but), I purchased this to read to my niece and nephew, who I consider to be the ultimate authority on all things Jack and Annie, and they loved it.
This ended up being one of their favorites so far. My nephew, age 7, is very much into snakes these days and was extremely engaged in the final few chapters, which deal with the King Cobra. My niece identified with the lost elephant in the story.
Both my niece and nephew have asked me to buy the audiobook production so they can experience the story again and again. So I give "A Crazy Day for Cobras" a recommendation based on the enthusiasm of its intended audience.
this story is about a boy named Jack and his sister Annie. the go in a magic tree house and go on a adventure to get a emerald rose so they can get set penny free, penny got turned into stone.
I think other people like it but it is hard to understand if you have not read the following books.
when I read This book I felt sad when the people in the perraid were hurting the elephant.
I did not learn anything from this book.
this book did not really keep my attention because I knew what was going to happen next but I liked what the story is about.
I do read other magic tree house books.
my favorite part was when Jack and Annie were riding the elephant in the jungle.
This one was a lot of fun. I get queezy about snakes, but even the illustrations don't make you uncomfortable, plus I've noticed, the more Osborne wrote of the MTH books, the better (for the most part) they became. The quality improved, which works for a reader. If the reader is starting off with the first book, Dinosaurs, and then progresses through all of them, the writing does improve. More difficult words, sentences, geographical locations, hard-to-pronounce animal and cultural names and longer books present more of a challenge as the series goes on.
So I was just a little too old to catch this series when it first started coming out, so there's no nostalgia attached to it for me. That's probably why I was pretty meh on it, though my niece who was in this age group that I read it with enjoyed it. I think the main thing that got me was that this is book 45, and still somehow the main character is annoying with his lack of chill or even beginning understanding of cultural relativism. Which, book for kids so it's probably a dumb nitpick, but whatever.
Jack and Annie are sent back in time to India to gather a emerald rose from Shah Jahan, the Great Mogul. They are disguised as children ambassadors and Annie has to pretend to be a boy, again. They learn how to act in front of The Great Mogul, receive the emerald rose, rescue an elephant, turn small, run from two cobras, saved by an elephant and learn about the Taj Mahal, and the emerald rose, from the Great Mogul. The message in this book is about love. We truly love those books.
Okay, full disclosure: I'm 90s kid who grew up reading the Magic Tree House series fervently, but haven't read it in... literally decades. But I'm familiar enough with Jack and Annie and the whole Tree house magic to feel comfortable jumping ahead 20-some books. I was prepared for the mixture of fantasy and history, facts taught through fiction, which I'd fallen in love with years ago.
What I was NOT prepared for was this story bringing a tear to my eye.
I am 30 years old, and I proudly say that the Magic Tree House books are my favorite young readers series. Even now, I constantly learn something new when I read them. They are also an "easy" read, something i can enjoy in between longer novels. I would definitely recommend these to anyone, young or old.
Jack and Alice head off on an adventure to see the Great Mongol so he can give them an emerald rose so they can use it to save poor penny who was accidently turned to stone. What else is instore for these two kiddos as they enter a place they never went before...... what dangers are ahead will they make it and be able to come back home to their time zone?
Jack and Annie go to India and Honey-We-Shrunk-Ourselves before visiting the Taj Mahal.
This one felt especially bland to me, plus Questionable Elephant Science. (It's possible that the baby elephant had been missing its mom for less than a day, but a very young elephant that's nursing most likely wouldn't survive without a mother.)
Jack and Annie must find 4 things to save merlin penguin penny from a spell. The first rare emerald . To find it, they travel back to India over 400 years ago when kings and queens ruled. And discover an amazing world filled with danger. Did Jack and Annie get the emerald escape the king cobras too. And will they go to the magic tree house in one piece. Ask the book and read the book.
My son loved this one. Asked to listen to it before we even got to the car. Was totally into the jewels and the cobras and the crazy elephant. Totally into it. Had to give it 5 stars for that enthusiasm alone.