Magic of Reading
Authors motivate Diné youth to use their imagination

ABOVE: Ganado Primary School third-grader Kobe Schurz smiles while listening to the authors of the popular book Magic Treehouse book series on Thursday morning at Window Rock High School. Students who attended the literacy event received free books from the authors. BELOW: Nancy Pope Osborne, Will Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce speak with children at Window Rock High School on Thursday afternoon during a literacy event. The trio are authors of the popular Magic Treehouse book series. [photos by Brian Leddy / Independent]By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

FORT DEFIANCE — Hundreds of elementary school pupils from across the Navajo Nation got the chance to hear from children’s authors Mary Pope Osborne, Will Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce, who were sending a message to promote reading and wellness among young people.

The authors spent Wednesday visiting over 1,000 pupils in Shiprock and more than 600 on Thursday at Window Rock High School to talk about the Magic Tree House book series.

The visits were part of the book tour promoting the 39th Magic Tree House book, “Dark Day in the Deep Sea” by Mary Pope Osborne and its companion non-fiction research guide “Sea Monsters.”

As the three authors discussed the books from the best-selling Magic Tree House series, children excitedly held up their copies. They even got a chance to vote on the subject of the next book for the series. At events in both Shiprock and Fort Defiance, the children voted the most for an adventure with pandas.

“Pandas take it with Navajo kids,” Osborne said.

Random House Children’s Books donated 2,000 books for the children, which they received earlier this year giving them time to read it before the visit.

Third-graders from Ganado Primary School said they learned a lot when they attended the last session that the three authors held at the WRHS auditorium.

“I learned about polar bears and sea monsters,” Alvina Tom said.

“I learned about tsunamis,” Jayson Cody said.

“It’s really awesome!” Dyanibah Lowery said about the presentation. She read 28 of the Magic Tree Series books.

“If you have nothing else to do, you should read,” she said.

Tracey Wheeler enjoyed learning about dinosaurs and said she has read 10-15 of the books in the series.

Darryl B. Lincoln said he loves to read “because I learn about stuff.”

The research guides help children to learn more about the main subject in the books, which feature brother and sister Jack and Annie being transported by a magic tree house.

The series began in 1992, and Osborne said she writes two books per year. Her husband Will and sister Natalie have been writing the companion non-fiction books since 2000, which now includes 17 titles.

Showing pictures of herself as a little girl, Osborne told the pupils about how she became an author.

“When I was growing up I had no idea I was going to be an author,” she told the children in the audience. “But I did know one thing about myself. I loved to live in my imagination,” she said.

She told about how she lived by the beach and would make up stories with her brothers.

“I think that’s where my imagination really started to think of stories in a way that would lead me to become an author one day,” she said.

After she married her husband, they lived in New York and she began writing about a girl who lived near the beach. She made up a story that her brother was sick and gave it to an author she knew who passed it on to a publisher.

The publisher told her to work on the story some more. She rewrote it within three months and the story became her first book.

“It was so exciting. I finally knew what I wanted to do when I grew up and I began writing all the time,” she said.

The visit by the authors was held in conjunction with ThinkFirst Navajo and Navajo Coordinated School Health. Dr. Robert Crowell, the sponsoring physician of the ThinkFirst Navajo, invited the Osbornes to visit the Navajo Nation which resulted in the event to promote literacy and wellness.

Osborne said that her trip to Navajoland was “wonderful” and that the children were well-prepared for her presentation.

“They’re so warm and receptive and bright,” she said about the children.

About her first trip to Navajo, she said, “It’s been what we expected and much more. The country is unbelievably beautiful.”

After the presentation was over and kids learned about how Osborne got her start writing and about the writing process, they lined up to have their books signed by the authors.

Jayme James reads a book from the popular Magic Treehouse book series at Window Rock High School on Thursday morning. Students who attended the literacy event received free books from the authors. [photo by Brian Leddy / Independent]