Mary Pope Osborne (born May 20, 1949) 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 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.

Early life and education

Mary Pope Osborne grew up in a military family, alongside her sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, her twin brother, Bill, and younger brother, Michael. After her father retired, her family settled in a small town in North Carolina. Osborne grew invested in the local community theater, spending all her free time there. Osborne and a friend went traveling. For six weeks, she camped out in a cave on the island of Crete. Following this, Osborne joined a small group of Europeans heading to the East. Their journey took Osborne through eleven countries throughout Asia, including Iraq, Iran, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Pakistan. and the 2010 Heidelberger Leander Award. She has also received awards from the Carolina Alumni Association, the Virginia Library Association

Ms. Osborne served two separate terms as president of the Authors Guild and also chaired its Children's Book Committee. The film grossed 5.7 million dollars; Osborne donated all her proceeds into her educational works.

She was profiled on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams for her continued efforts to get books into the hands of underserved children on a Magic Tree House-themed tour bus. while simultaneously helping kids to read at grade level by the end of 3rd grade.

Writing and publication

Osborne's travels and experiences have factored largely into her own writing, while her writing has allowed her to experience some of the thrills of traveling, as she said, "Without even leaving my home, I’ve traveled around the globe, learning about the religions of the world." Her work includes young adult novels, picture books, retellings of mythology and fairy tales, biographies, mysteries, a six-part series of the Odyssey, a book of American Tall Tales, and a book for young readers about the major world religions.

Osborne says that she can work on Magic Tree House up to 12 hours a day and seven days a week and has used space at shared office space, The Writer's Room. She has modeled her writing after Hemingway by trying to be simple and direct and as of 2007 the series had spent a total 132 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Adaptations

Magic Tree House Children's Theatre

The Magic Tree House brand has taken on other forms. A full-scale musical adaptation was created by Will Osborne and Randy Court; Magic Tree House: The Musical, premiered in September 2007. Osborne hoped that it would have the same kind of kid and adult appeal as The Lion King or Mary Poppins.

A planetarium show; Magic Tree House: Space Mission, also created by Will Osborne, is produced and presented exclusively at the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

In 2011, Will Osborne collaborated with New Orleans composer Allen Toussaint and Ain't Misbehavin co-creator Murray Horwitz to write A Night in New Orleans, a musical adaptation of Magic Tree House #42: A Good Night for Ghosts about the life of Louis Armstrong. The show features an ensemble cast and live jazz band. It premiered in 2012 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and was shown free to every Newark 4th grade student.

Magic Tree House Kids Shows are theatrical adaptations of selected titles in the Magic Tree House series designed specifically for performance by kids. To date, children's shows have been created by husband and wife playwright and composer team Randy Courts and Jenny Laird A Night in New Orleans, and Stage Fright on a Summer Night, a new children's show based on the life of William Shakespeare premiered at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre in October 2017.

Film adaptation

In 2011, the series was adapted as a Japanese animated fantasy film, . The film was directed by Hiroshi Nishikiori and the screenplay, written by Ichiro Okouchi, was based on the Japanese version of the novel series "Magic Tree House".

In 2016, Lionsgate acquired the film rights with a script by Will Osborne and Jenny Laird. The film would primarily contain plot elements from Book #29, Christmas in Camelot. As of 2021 no further news about this movie has been reported.

Personal life

Osborne was married to Will Osborne in 1976, meeting him after seeing him appear in a play.

  • Official Website: http://www.MTHClassroomAdventures.org
  • http://www.MagicTreeHouse.com
  • Mary Pope Osborne at publisher Penguin Random House/Random House Children's Books
  • Magic Tree House: Space Mission show at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center