Dragons and Mythical Creatures

Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #35

by Mary Pope Osborne, Mary Pope Osborne, Carlo Molinari (Illustrator)

Track the facts about dragons, unicorns, mermaids, and more—with Jack and Annie!
 
When Jack and Annie came back from their adventure in Magic Tree House Super Edition #2: Night of the Nine Dragons, they had lots of questions. What do tales about dragons have in common? Are mermaids real? How do unicorns use their horns? Find out the answers to these questions and more as Jack and Annie track the facts about their favorite creatures from myths and legends. And just what might some of those creature sightings really be?
 
Filled with up-to-date information, photographs, illustrations, and fun tidbits from Jack and Annie, the Magic Tree House Fact Trackers are the perfect way for kids to find out more about the topics they discover in their favorite Magic Tree House adventures. And teachers can use the Fact Trackers alongside their Magic Tree House fiction companions to meet Common Core text pairing needs.
 
Have more fun with Jack and Annie on the Magic Tree House website at MagicTreeHouse.com!

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, History, Dragons, Chapter Books, Mythology

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2016

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 6-year-old daughter read this book on her own, and this is her rating and review in her own words (typed by Daddy as she reviewed):

"I'll tell some of my favorite facts in this book: There is a magical animal called a kitsune. 'In some Japanese myths, kitsune are known for their great wisdom. The older they get, the smarter they are.' I think it is really cool, because kitsune can live 1,000 years."

"I think the page about the leucrocuta is really cool and I think it is really cool that if a person hears a leucrocuta calling their name and goes to investigate, the leucrocuta will grind them to bits."

"The Mayans believe that Quetzalcoatl gave some of its favorite food, corn, to the gods. And then the gods thought it was so good that they wanted to give it to people. And that is how the Mayans think people now eat corn."

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 2016, Mary Pope Osborne and her sister Natalie Pope Boyce published the Magic Tree House Fact Trackers entitled Dragons and Mythical Creatures. This book is a nonfiction research guide to the book entitled Night of the Ninth Dragons by Mary Pope Osborne which was published in 2016. Osborne and Boyce cover various mythical creatures. The book includes dragons, mythical sea creatures, unicorns, mermaids, griffins, and several other mythical creatures. The book also has a chapter entitled “Animals in Creation Myths” (Osborne & Boyce 75-82) The book is for young readers. The book has wonderful black-and-white illustrations. The book has a bibliography. The book has wonderful black-and-white photographs. The illustrator for this book was Carlo Molinari. Similar to the other books in the Magic Tree House Fact Trackers series, the book has a section on how to do more research for young readers about mythical creatures. The book has an index and includes photo credits. The book was advised by a professor of English literature and an educational adviser. The book also tries to explain why people in earlier times and some people today believed in mythical creatures. I think the book does a good and respectful job explaining why people in earlier times believed in mythical creatures. The book explains why the Welsh flag has a dragon on the flag. I believe overall Osborne’s and Boyce’s Dragons and Mythical Creatures is a well-done introduction to Mythical Creatures, with a focus on dragons.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll read just about anything with dragons and I grew up loving the Magic Tree House series so when I saw this on Overdrive, I had to try it and it didn't disappoint. It was a great book for early readers, a nonfiction overview of mythical creatures with some beautiful illustrations. The ebook even included some suggestions for kids to do further research themselves using multiple different methods and sources. I'm all for anything that encourages kids to read and ask questions.

[Hafez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it because of the words.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 2 out of 5]

Osborne, Mary Pope and Boyce, Natalie Pope Dragons and Mythical Creatures (Fact Tracker) 121 pgs. Random House, 2016. $5.99 Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G Violence: G

This short book is stuffed with interesting information about the history/mythology of dragons. It features many different cultures, countries and time periods. Then it delves into other mythological creatures like griffins, unicorns and even yeti. It provides explanations for why people in the past may have chosen to believe in such creatures. There are lots drawings and a few photographs.

This was both an interesting and fun read that any student would enjoy. However, I have added a few of these fact trackers to my library and they just lack the visual appeal of other books on similar subject. Why choose a tiny dragon book like this when I have five oversize ones full of color illustrations? This would make a fun gift for a younger reader.

EL(K-3) – OPTIONAL Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2016/...

[Mary Shafer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever Wonder where stories of dragons and other mythical creatures come from? This book takes a look at the places and ideas of where these stories started and why they are popular. Learn about dragons, sea creatures, unicorns, mermaids, griffins, and more. See the difference between the dragons from Asia and the ones from Europe. Maybe some creatures came about because of fossils found from dinosaurs. Creatures mean different things like good luck, strength, or courage. The back of the book tells a little bit of how to do research and it gives places (books, places, and internet sites) where to start that research. I would recommend this book for 2nd - 4th graders to read. (760L)

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was captivating to me as a younger person, and it can be sucked up and digested well for beginning readers of chapter books, but something that really gets me is that this information has been available in so many other books, websites, and movies. And probably, when formatted for kids at least, been put in an almost-the-same way. Maybe if this book was written in a different or unique formatting....
If it were me I may have put together a book (if I were a good writer) on a specific topic, or collected some of the legends and quotes around each one. Or I might weave it into a story....

[Jenny Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gives a brief introduction to many different myths from many different cultures. It also has a good list for further study. It goes with Night of the Ninth Dragon

[Whole And · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful exploration of dragon legends and other mythical creatures based on historic facts, illustrations and details on mermaids, griffins and more! Excellent for the dragon lover.

[Daphne Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter doesn't always like the Magic Tree House Fact Tracker (or Research Guide) series, but she truly enjoyed this one.

[Laurel Pate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great information and lots of it!!!

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fact Tracker about dragons and mythical creatures - got to start them young so they'll be ready for the Monster Manual someday!

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book for Christmas and I read it in about 1 hour! Very fun and useful.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super interesting!

[blueygurl2016 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was actually pretty interesting. I’d never heard of some of the mythical creatures mentioned in this book so I learned about some new creatures.

[Agnieszka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

Good book I like mythical creatures such as Nessie (loch ness monster) or Kelpies or basilisk or a dragon and much more. Nessie is said to be a prehistoric dinosaur called a plesiosaur. A Kelpie is a water spirit that looks for tired travellers and then takes the form of a horse and if the traveller gets on the horse the water spirit will go down into the loch and devour its prey...

[Bethany Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Kid friendly information

Great book to help kids understand what mythical beasts are and why these myths exist! It also has suggestions at the end for more places curious minds can go to learn more.

[Madeleine Sorell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so much fun to read it☺

Because it was good and the book was so awesome that I screamed so hard that my brain was going to pop out

[Selah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers a huge array of mythical creatures, but gives very little in depth info about any of them.