I decided to challenge myself to reading all the books in the Magic Tree House series (as of September 2022). One of my favorite things to do with a list is to create a ranking, but with so many entries with many similarities I needed a good way to rate them that took several factors into account. Enter the CAWPILE system, this rating system looks at: Character, Atmosphere, Writing Style, Plot, Intrigue, Logic, and Enjoyment. I chose to view this as much as possible taking the target age range into consideration. I also added another category, Education, since so many people use these books in the classroom and as jumping off points for non-fiction studies. (I do understand the educational value of mythology but have chosen to strictly focus on the non-fiction angle since it is a major selling point of the series.)
I created a guide that I used as a baseline for my ratings, sometimes I shift things up or down. A brief explanation of what my ratings mean:
Characters
5 = Annoying Jack and/or Annie
6 = Basic J and A
7 = J and A at top of game
8 = Basic side characters
9 = Interesting side characters
10 = Really Vibing with J/A and side characters
Atmosphere
1 or 2 - basic, not particularly exciting
3 or 4 - premise is more interesting than the execution
5 or 6 - execution is better than the premise
7 or 8 - Decent execution and premise
9 or 10 - Truly captures the imagination
Writing Style
Doesn’t vary much generally 8
Plot
1 or 2 - J/A just doing stuff
3 or 4 - J/A just doing interesting stuff
5 or 6 - J/A with a plot line
7 or 8 - J/A with a good premise
9 or 10 - Conflict and Resolution are both satisfying
Intrigue
1 or 2 - premise didn’t excite (and probably wouldn’t excite many kids) me read out of duty
3 or 4 - premise has niche interest
5 or 6 - premise initially good, bad execution
7 or 8 - good premise with wide appeal
9 or 10 - kids generally love the premise and it carries through the story
Logic
1 or 2 - disregards history and general rules of a story
3 or 4 - PARADOXES / doesn’t really make sense
5 or 6 - puts J/A too much into a specific historical event / makes some sense but not totally
7 or more 8 - history adjacent / mostly makes realistic animal/ story choices
9 or 10 - choices made make sense/ involved in history without affecting events
Education
1 or 2 - based primarily in myth and legend
3 or 4 - relies heavily on stereotypes/ doesn’t present many facts about subject
5 or 6 - portrays historical people and events with heavy mythology influence (or animals in unrealistic fashion)
7 or 8 - light fantasy influence or mostly realistic animals
9 or 10 - well-represented historical people and events, facts woven into story
68. Thanksgiving on Thursday
Honesty in all things... I went into this book pretty sure I wasn't going to like it. I was right. I am not a fan of first Thanksgiving stories which this story leans right into. Easily the lowest rank on the CAWPILEE list this ended up being the only 2-star book in the entire series. There are other books I wouldn't recommend, but this is the only one I have a hard time thinking of redeeming qualities.
Annie is annoying with her insistence that she won't go clamming because the clams live a long time. Then Jack and Annie proceed to continue lying and mess up several tasks. They meet Squanto (Tisquantum), who tells them that he was captured and taken to Europe as a slave and lost his people. Later when reflecting on their adventure they talk about how sad it must have been for the Pilgrims to lose their family and friends... but no mention of Squanto or the Wampanoag's hardships. None of the side characters really brought anything satisfying to the table either.
Annie is annoying with her insistence that she won't go clamming because the clams live a long time. Then Jack and Annie proceed to continue lying and mess up several tasks. They meet Squanto (Tisquantum), who tells them that he was captured and taken to Europe as a slave and lost his people. Later when reflecting on their adventure they talk about how sad it must have been for the Pilgrims to lose their family and friends... but no mention of Squanto or the Wampanoag's hardships. None of the side characters really brought anything satisfying to the table either.
Character - 5
Atmosphere - 4
Writing Style - 6 - Relies too heavily on the jokes of Pilgrims not understanding modern lingo and Jack and Annie failing at every task they attempt. Rehashes an old story to boot.
Plot - 5
Intrigue - 3 - I'm sure there must be some people who find the concept interesting. I'm not one, and surely only some incredibly holiday-centric children are interested.
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 2 - I knew I wouldn't like this. But I did like that one of the special magics was the 'magic of community', so a point for that.
Education - 3
Final Score: 4.125
67. Polar Bears Past Bedtime
Perhaps best denoted by the phrase, I'm not mad - I'm just disappointed. (Except, yes, I'm a little mad.) Teaching in the Arctic, on an island surrounded by polar bears, my students were naturally curious to hear this one. There were a couple lines that I either omitted or edited during read-aloud. Most egregious was Annie being upset about the Inuit hunting seals (and presumably other animals), she brings this up multiple times and is told to 'not worry about it'. I'd rather she was properly educated on the fact that historically, and today, people relied on hunting for food and clothing. And it isn't as though Annie is vegetarian, she talks about hot dogs and spaghetti and meatballs with nary a worry. Also frustrating is the wording of this book making it seem like Inuit were only in the past (an implied distant past), I used to update the text when reading to say things like, 'in the past and today', 'hunters used sled dogs, today many use snow machines', and other easy edits like that.
Character - 6
Atmosphere - 5 - The Arctic is admittedly not for everyone, but I kind of love it. This book only half-captures that though.
Writing Style - 6
Plot - 4
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 4
Education - 5
Final Score: 5.125
It isn't the nineties anymore, surely, we are beyond the time of oddly quaint stereotypes of Native Americans. A character (based on a real person) is known as Heart-of-the-Wind, a semi-translation of her name... but why not at least have her introduce herself by her real name? (Hint: It doesn't sound very Native American.) This character easily communes with nature - straight up talking to a jaguar and getting his permission to walk in the forest. When Annie or other characters do this, it is implied to be a sort of fantasy magic, but here it is just something that Native Americans do sometimes. Oh, and Jack is chosen as next king of the Mayans because he has a... travel brochure. Adding insult to injury, at 130 pages this is the second longest book after the special edition title.
Character - 7
Atmosphere - 4
Writing Style - 6
Plot - 4
Intrigue - 6 - Pick a lane! Sharks or Mayan either would have been interesting, but I can see a kid picking this up for the shark aspect and then feeling mighty let down.
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 5
Education - 6 - in the end I totally did learn something, I never knew about Yohl Ik'nal and her being the first female ruler of the Mayan, but MPO couldn't resist the urge to give us the Native Americans = Captain Planet trope and we ended up with animals behaving unrealistically/ mythology influenced.
Final Score: 5.375
This one isn't slightly offensive - just boring. (Yay!) I really have very little to say about it - the solution to saving the giant octopus made me laugh, but I don't think that was the intention. Solidified a trend of the ocean books having more potential than actual enjoyment.
Character - 6
Atmosphere - 4
Writing Style - 8
Plot - 3
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 5
Education - 6
Final Score: 5.375
64. Buffalo Before Breakfast
This book came closer to being an okay depiction of Native Americans, this time a Lakota community. I like how Jack and Annie's interactions went with Black Hawk (although I would have at least liked a first mention of how his name looks in Lakota: Čhetáŋ Sápa') and his grandmother. What I am not a fan of is Jack and Annie being given Lakota names right off the get-go. Also, Annie being the only one who gets to see the White Buffalo Woman feels off to me.
Character - 8 - Genuinely enjoyable side characters are the redeeming feature of this particular entry.
Atmosphere - 4
Writing Style - 6
Plot - 4
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 5
Education - 5
Final Score: 5.5
63. Tigers at Twilight
No matter how many times I read this one it comes across pretty dull, the more boring version of Afternoon on the Amazon if you will. The first couple chapters are dedicated to setting the scene well enough. The middle continues setting the scene. Then the end has no conflict or resolution, and we meet an Indian hermit that lives in the jungle, meditates on how all is connected, and is also blind. His character was a bit too paint by number for my taste.
Character - 6 - Decent enough Jack and Annie brought down by the hermit they meet at the end being SUCH a stock character.
Atmosphere - 4
Writing Style - 7
Plot - 3 -
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 5
Education - 7
Final Score: 5.5
62. To the Future, Ben Franklin!
Ummmmmm.... So, I thought that the future in the title was referring to some of Franklin's ideas or inventions in a metaphorical sense. No, it is 100% literal - so far this is the only time Jack and Annie have transported someone else in the tree house and that makes the book stick out. It's the paradoxes that bring it down for me. Suggesting that Franklin only signed the Constitution after seeing the future thanks to Jack and Annie.
Character - 7 - Frankin is enjoyable enough, Jack and Annie are starting to wear a bit thin by this point.
Atmosphere - 5
Writing Style - 8
Plot - 4 - Even with this bonkers premise, there fails to be a plot beyond just kind of bouncing from one place to another.
Intrigue - 3
Logic - 4
Enjoyment - 5 - I like the idea of Ben Franklin in a MTH book but would have preferred it be more about his science/ inventions or founding the first public library or the post office.
Education - 9 - Easily weaves facts into the narrative better than many other books (especially some of these late in the game titles).
Final Score: 5.625
61. Dolphins at Daybreak
I want to like this one. The idea has so much potential, but I cannot get into it, no matter how often I read it. I'm not sure it is really a favorite of kids either - they will often gravitate towards several of the books read in class, but this isn't one of them.
Character - 6
Atmosphere - 4 - Sort of the hallmark of the premise is better than the execution.
Writing Style - 8
Plot - 3 - Admittedly using a submarine is interesting, that's all that's keeping this from being a 2.
Intrigue - 5
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 5
Education - 7
Final Score: 5.625
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