Season of the Sandstorms: A Merlin Mission
Read Season of the Sandstorms: A Merlin Mission Online
Authors: Mary Pope Osborne
Tags: #Ages 6 and up
Here’s what kids have to say to
Mary Pope Osborne, author of
the Magic Tree House series:
WOW! You have an imagination like no other.
—Adam W.
I love your books. If you stop writing books, it will be like losing a best friend.
—Ben M.
I think you are the real Morgan le Fay. There is always magic in your books.
—Erica Y.
One day I was really bored and I didn’t want to read … I looked in your book. I read a sentence, and it was interesting. So I read some more, until the book was done. It was so good I read more and more. Then I had read all of your books, and now I hope you write lots more.
—Danai K.
I always read [your books] over and over … 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, 4 times …
—Yuan C.
You are my best author in the world. I love your books. I read all the time. I read everywhere. My mom is like freaking out.
—Ellen C.
I hope you make these books for all yours and mine’s life.
—Riki H.
Teachers and librarians love
Magic Tree House
®
books, too!
Thank you for opening faraway places and times to my class through your books. They have given me the chance to bring in additional books, materials, and videos to share with the class.
—J. Cameron
It excites me to see how involved [my fourth-grade reading class] is in your books … I would do anything to get my students more involved, and this has done it.
—C. Rutz
I discovered your books last year … WOW! Our students have gone crazy over them. I can’t order enough copies! … Thanks for contributing so much to children’s literature!
—C. Kendziora
I first came across your Magic Tree House series when my son brought one home … I have since introduced this great series to my class. They have absolutely fallen in love with these books! … My students are now asking me for more independent reading time to read them. Your stories have inspired even my most struggling readers.
—M. Payne
I love how I can go beyond the [Magic Tree House] books and use them as springboards for other learning.
—R. Gale
We have enjoyed your books all year long. We check your Web site to find new information. We pull our map down to find the areas where the adventures take place. My class always chimes in at key parts of the story. It feels good to hear my students ask for a book and cheer when a new book comes out.
—J. Korinek
Our students have “Magic Tree House fever.” I can’t keep your books on the library shelf.
—J. Rafferty
Your books truly invite children into the pleasure of reading. Thanks for such terrific work.
—S. Smith
The children in the fourth grade even hide the [Magic Tree House] books in the library so that they will be able to find them when they are ready to check them out.
—K. Mortensen
My Magic Tree House books are never on the bookshelf because they are always being read by my students. Thank you for creating such a wonderful series.
—K. Mahoney
M
any years ago, I journeyed overland from Greece to Nepal. On my trip, I traveled from Damascus, Syria, to Baghdad, Iraq, riding in a van through the desert. Just before sunset my traveling companion and I came upon a tea tent in the middle of nowhere. There, an old man and his great-grandson served tea to the few travelers who passed their way. The man and the boy invited us to share their dinner and camp near their tent. I’ll never forget their kindness, nor the brilliant sunset over the desert—nor the cold starry night that followed. It has been a joy to return to these memories while writing
Season of the Sandstorms
,
and I hope I can revisit the country of Iraq someday.
Text copyright © 2005 by Mary Pope Osborne.
Illustrations copyright © 2005 by Sal Murdocca.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House Childrenߣs Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.randomhouse.com/kids
www.magictreehouse.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Osborne, Mary Pope.
Season of the sandstorms / by Mary Pope Osborne; illustrated by Sal Murdocca.
p. cm. — (Magic tree house; #34)
“A Merlin mission.”
“A Stepping Stone book.”
SUMMARY
: Guided by a magic rhyme, Jack and Annie travel to ancient Baghdad on a mission to help the caliph disseminate wisdom to the world.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89456-5
[1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Brothers and sisters—Fiction.
4. Baghdad (Iraq)—History—Fiction. 5. Iraq—History—Fiction.]
I. Murdocca, Sal, ill. II. Title. III. Series: Osborne, Mary Pope.
Magic tree house series; v #34. PZ7.O81167Se 2005 [E]—dc22 2005000836
Random House, Inc. New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland
RANDOM HOUSE
and colophon are registered trademarks and
A STEPPING STONE BOOK
and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc. MAGIC TREE HOUSE is a registered trademark of Mary Pope Osborne; used under license.
v3.0
To Paul Caringella,
a scholar in the
House of Wisdom
Away, for we are ready to a man!
Our camels sniff the evening and are glad.
Lead on, O Master of the Caravan:
Lead on the Merchant-Princes of Baghdad.
—James Elroy Flecker
O
ne summer day, a mysterious tree house appeared in the woods. A brother and sister named Jack and Annie soon learned that the tree house was magic—it could take them to any time and any place in history. They also learned that the tree house belonged to Morgan le Fay, a magical librarian from the legendary realm of Camelot.
After Jack and Annie traveled on many adventures for Morgan, Merlin the magician began sending them on “Merlin Missions” in the tree house. With help from two young sorcerers named Teddy and Kathleen, Jack and Annie visited four mythical places and found valuable objects to help save Camelot.
On their next four Merlin Missions, Jack and Annie were told they must travel to real times and real places in history and prove to Merlin that they could use magic wisely. They have just
returned from a successful mission in the city of Venice over 250 years ago, and now they are waiting to hear from Merlin again….
