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Schools

Children's Authors Visit Marion Street School

Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce speak to students as part of PARP.

Marion Street School recently held an afternoon assembly of the students where two authors of children’s books, Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce, spoke about their writing, in concurrence with the school’s annual participation in Parents As Reading Partners (PARP), a state reading advocacy program.

Pope Osborne is the author of The Magic Tree House series, published by Random House. Karen Mertz, a resident of East Rockaway who has a son in fifth grade, explained that the series’ themes were adventure, exploration, and education, streamed by the recurring specs: a brother and sister and a tree house that transports them through time and space.

“She’s a huge deal. A modern day Beverly Cleary,” said Kelly Light, also a resident of East Rockaway, whose daughter, Maggie, is a fifth grader at Marion Street School. It took Light four days to complete the decoration for the event, with the results being illustrated brown bulletin paper covering the vestibule to resemble the interior of Pope Osborne’s tree house. There was also a large tree taped across the entrance to the gym, filled with leaves, on which the students wrote down their favorite Magic Tree books.

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She was not far off the mark in her characterization of Pope Osborne’s literary prowess. There are over 100 books in the children and young-adult genres in her curriculum vitae, dating as far back as 1982. The collection includes 19 novels, the 45 that comprise the Magic Tree House series and 31 non-fiction, on many of which she collaborated with Pope Boyce, her sister. The Magic Tree House series, started in 1992, constitutes the bulk of her accomplishments.

On Jan. 11, after an introduction from Marion Street School Principal Barbara Moore, Pope Osborne told the story behind her creation of Magic Tree House to about 500 children sitting Indian style on the gym floor. Speaking from the stage, she touched on important points in her background and described the first inspiration coming across an old weathered tree house during a hike with her husband — also a writer and another collaborator — in the woods of Pennsylvania. Then she read a passage from her newest installment called A Crazy Day with Cobras, which had gone on sale the same day.

Pope Boyce followed with some of the facts that drove her research for the non-fiction companion, Snakes and Other Reptiles. They ended with a preview of future installments and book covers, then pictures before making a round to the classrooms.

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“I like doing all different kinds of books,” Pope Boyce said. “I’ve written biology, fairy-tales, mythology, novels, picture books, mysteries. I love change. That’s the whole nature of my creativity. And then I thought, but wait a minute, what if this series changed with every book?”

The assembly was arranged by Kerri Benvenuto, who herself went to Marion Street School and is now a member of the school's PTA, with a daughter in the second grade. Benvenuto said she began planning for the author 's arrival back in the spring.

"We totally knew way back then that she was going to go on tour for her new book," Benvenuto said.

PARP was initiated in the New York State Senate Education Committee in 1978 and has been run by the New York State PTA since 1987.

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