Dragon of the Red Dawn

Title: Dragon of the Red Dawn (Magic Tree House #37 A Merlin Mission)

Author: Mary Pope Osborne

Illustrator: Sal Murdocca

Publisher & Publication Date: Random House Inc., 2007

Genre: Fantasy, Multicultural, Historical fiction

Grade Level: 3-5

Summary: In this magical story Jack and Annie are sent on a mission to help save the life of Merlin, the magician who has given the a magic wand to help them if they need it. They are sent to Japan to find one of the secrets of happiness. They being their journey by landing in the Imperial Garden. They are then faced with Samurai asking for passports and then meet Basho. Basho is a famous poet in Japan and is known by everyone. He provides safety for Jack and Annie because they do not have passports to travel alone. He lets the children stay with him. They wake in the middle of the night with the sounding of bells in the distance. They learn that the town is on fire and they use their magic to save the city. They go back to their home and realize they didn't find the secret of happiness they were looking for, but then think about the things that made them happy while they were in Japan. They realize that just taking time and listening and noticing nature is a secret to true happiness. They learned that from Basho.

Response: I loved this story. I had really enjoyed the other Magic Tree House book that I read in class, but I really liked this one. It was about finding happiness and I love to be happy so it was great! It made me happy while I was reading it. I was a little scared at times because I didn't know the dragon was a good thing. I thought something bad was going to happen and the story wasn't going to have a happy ending. It was an easy read and once again I escaped into my own fantasy world. I also learned things from the story. I did not know that much of the Japanese culture, but now I know a little bit more. There were a few illustrations in the book and they were eye-catching. They looked like they were produced with a pencil. They were basic looking, but had a great amount of detail. They were mainly single-page spread illustrations, but there was one amazing double-page spread. Overall, this was a wonderful story. I would like to read more of the Magic Tree House series.

Teaching Ideas: The Magic Tree House series is an excellent series to use for connections to history. The passport idea from the books is a great idea to use in the classroom. This book would be a good one to use with a unit on Japan. It is an adventure so the students will love finding out new things about the culture and seeing what is going to happen next in the story. You could read the book over a couple of days or a week then let the students access the passport website to update their passports. This would also be a good book to use for the term of happiness. You could ask what happiness means to the students, and then have them journal about the things that make them happy. Then they could make drawings of the one thing that makes them happier than any other and share with the class. Another idea would be to use the Haiku form of poetry. The book tells what a haiku is so you could tell your students and have them make their own haiku. A great way to integrate poetry, Japanese culture and happiness all with one book!