She went on to write a variety of other children's and young adult books before starting the Magic Tree House series in 1992.
[1] Osborne herself says of the experience: "Moving was never traumatic for me, but staying in one place was.”[2] After her father retired, her family settled in a small town in North Carolina.
Their journey took Osborne through eleven countries throughout Asia, including Iraq, Iran, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Pakistan.
[1] The trip came to an end when Osborne experienced blood poisoning requiring her to stay in a hospital for a couple of weeks where she read The Lord of the Rings.
"[1] After her travels, Osborne lived in California, Washington D.C., where she met her husband Will at a theater performance, and New York, where the couple moved after getting married in 1976.
[1] She has since traveled extensively in the states and throughout the world, visiting schools and speaking on issues related to reading and books.
[10] She was profiled on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams for her continued efforts to get books into the hands of underserved children on a Magic Tree House-themed tour bus.
The book itself is semi-autobiographical in nature, according to Osborne: "The girl was a lot like me and many of the incidents in the story were similar to happenings in my childhood.
[15] Mary has cited the key role Will plays in her writing saying, "Will has given me the support and encouragement I've needed to be a professional daydreamer - in other words, an author of children's books.
"[15] It introduces the main characters of Jack and Annie, a brother and sister duo of adventurers who are transported to different areas of time thanks to the titular magic treehouse.
[15] Osborne tends to place small cliffhangers at the end of each chapter, which has been highlighted as one of the major reasons for the appeal of the books within their target age group.
[20] Based on the Magic Tree House book Christmas in Camelot, the Musical has toured nationally[20][17] and had a cast album.
[citation needed] In 2011, Will Osborne collaborated with New Orleans composer Allen Toussaint and Ain't Misbehavin' co-creator Murray Horwitz to write A Night in New Orleans, a musical adaptation of Magic Tree House #42: A Good Night for Ghosts about the life of Louis Armstrong.
[18] To date, children's shows have been created by husband and wife playwright and composer team Randy Courts and Jenny Laird[24] in collaboration with Will Osborne based on the following Magic Tree House books: Dinosaurs Before Dark, The Knight at Dawn, Pirates Past Noon, A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time,[24] A Night in New Orleans, and Stage Fright on a Summer Night, a new children's show based on the life of William Shakespeare premiered at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre in October 2017.
[17] In 2011, the series was adapted as a Japanese animated fantasy film, Magic Tree House (マジック・ツリーハウス, Majikku Tsurī Hausu).
The film was directed by Hiroshi Nishikiori and the screenplay was based on the Japanese version of the novel series "Magic Tree House" by Ichiro Okouchi.