Mary Pope Osborne

Their magic tree house takes Jack and Annie back to a monastery in medieval Ireland, where they try to retrieve a lost book while being menaced by Viking raiders.

Viking Ships at Sunrise

Sarah Sammis

I'll probably be wrapping up my series of reviews of books from the Magic Tree House soon. My son has become a strong enough reader that he now reads these books by himself. With all my other reading I'm not sure I can keep up with them as he tears through this series.

Viking Ship Before Sunrise is the third book in the lost works series. This time Jack and Annie have to go back to an island off the coast of Ireland to rescue an illuminated manuscript before the island is over run by Vikings.

There's a lot of history and art history tossed into this volume but at 75 pages there just isn't much time to go any sort of detail. Jack and Annie learn how to live like monks (briefly), learn about the process of making an illuminated manuscript (briefly), learn about the Viking invasion and nearly experience it first hand. With the emphasis put on the danger there's little time for anything else. The adventure here didn't feel as well integrated as it is in a later volume, Tonight on the Titanic.

Viking Ships at Sunrise

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