Monday with a Mad Genius (Magic Tree House Series #38) » (Reprint)

Mary Pope Osborne has channeled a lifelong love of exploration and travel into one of the most popular children s book series of the past two decades. With her fantastic Magic Tree House series, Mary Pope Osborne keeps the good times rolling for kids all over the world.

JACK AND ANNIE are on a mission to save Merlin from his sorrows! Charged with finding the second of four secrets of happiness, the brother-and-sister team travel back in the magic tree house to the period known as the Renaissance. This time, Jack and Annie will need more than a research book and a magic wand. They'll need help from one of the greatest minds of all time. What will they learn from Leonardo da Vinci?

Children's Literature

Following a brief introduction by the author and a prologue orienting the reader to the "Merlin Missions" adventures of the "Magic Tree House" books, the time-traveling siblings, Jack and Annie, spot the tree house on their way to school. The young sorcerers, Teddy and Kathleen, tell them they must travel back five hundred years to Florence, Italy, where they will spend the day helping Leonardo da Vinci. In the process, they are to discover the second secret of happiness that will help Merlin overcome his low spirits. Teddy gives them a biography of Leonardo, and Kathleen gives Annie a rhyme that will help them find the answer. She also reminds Jack of the three rules for using the magic Wand of Dianthus, which he always carries with him. Once the tree house lands in Florence, Annie and Jack read a little about Leonardo in the biography before they order the wand to help them find him. After a few near misses, they meet Leonardo in the market and he agrees to let them be his apprentices for a day because he is in a hurry to finish a fresco he is painting in the council hall. Jack and Annie are much impressed by the enormous battle painting, but Leonardo's experiment in drying the wet paint with lighted pots of wood results in heat that melts the paint and ruins the fresco. Deeply upset, the painter rushes off, but Jack and Annie follow him to his house and get him talking about the ideas he has set down in his notebooks. Finding that he desperately wants to fly, they go with him to a hillside where he shows them the flying machine he calls the Great Bird. When he demonstrates it for them, he soars briefly and then crashes. But Annie brings out the Wand of Dianthus and the three of themgrow wings and fly over the city. On their way back to his house, where Leonardo is late for his meeting with Lisa, a young woman whose portrait he is painting, Leonardo tells them he believes the secret of happiness is curiosity. The story's text is followed by a three-page description of Leonardo's life and work, three pages with directions for making paper planes, and three with a word puzzle, the first chapter of a new "Merlin Mission" book, and a page of temporary tattoos. A "Stepping Stone Book." Reviewer: Judy DaPolito