Mary Pope Osborne

Sal Murdocca

Jack and Annie are ready for their next fantasy adventure in the bestselling middle-grade series-the Magic Tree House! Gentle giants or giant monsters? That's the question Jack and Annie have about gorillas when the Magic Tree House sweeps them to the mountains of Africa. There they meet a group of amazing and sometimes frightening mountain gorillas. Annie knows how to play with the creatures right away. But Jack is left out. Will the gorillas be able to teach him some special magic? Visit the Magic Tree House website! MagicTreeHouse.com

Good Morning, Gorillas

Sarah Sammis

In Good Morning, Gorillas by Mary Pope Osborne, Jack and Annie meet Jane Goodall and learn about sign language. It's one of the last books my son and I read together before moving onto longer and more complicated books.

They are sent into the jungle by the tree house to find a new way of communicating as one of Morgan's four-part spells. They quickly meet up with a group of gorillas. Their interaction with the creatures bring to the forefront a plot point that has been developing over the course of the series: Annie's ability to speak with animals. It's the first time though that her talent is overtly discussed.

Although some of the interactions with the gorillas seemed hokey to Sean and me, we both liked the introduction of Dame Jane Goodall. I have one of her books on my to be read pile which I showed to Sean. After finishing the book we took a little extra time learning about her work and about different famous gorillas who have learned sign language.

Good Morning, Gorillas

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