Mary Pope Osborne

Mary Pope Osborne (born May 20, 1949) is an American author of children's books and audiobook narrator.

She is best known as the author of the Magic Tree House series, which sold more than 134 million copies worldwide.

Both the series and Osborne have won awards, including for Osborne's charitable efforts at promoting children's literacy.

One of four children, Osborne moved around in her childhood before attending the University of North Carolina.

Following college, Osborne traveled before moving to New York City.

After graduating from UNC in 1971, Osborne and a friend went traveling.

For six weeks, she camped out in a cave on the island of Crete.

Following this, Osborne joined a small group of Europeans heading to the East.

Their journey took Osborne through eleven countries throughout Asia, including Iraq, Iran, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Pakistan.

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.

Remarking on her travels Osborne said, ""That journey irrevocably changed me.

The experience was gathered that serves as a reference point every day of my life.

I encountered worlds of light and worlds of darkness--and planted seeds of the imagination that led directly to my being an author of Adult's books."

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.

During this time, she held jobs including medical assistant, travel agent, drama teacher, bartender, and as an assistant editor for a children's magazine.

Mary Pope Osborne has written over 60 children's stories, with a variety of genres and for a range of children to young adult audiences.

Her books have been named to a number of the Best Books of the Year Lists, including, School Library Journal, Parents’ Magazine, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and Bank Street College.

She has received honors from such organizations as the National Council of Teachers of English, The Children's Book Council, and the International Reading Association.

She somewhat spontaneously began to write, and her first book was published in 1982.

Osborne's writing career began "one day, out of the blue" when she wrote Run, Run As Fast As You Can in 1982.

She went on to write a variety of other children's and young adult books before starting the Magic Tree House series in 1992.

Osborne's sister Natalie Pope Boyce has written several compendium books to the Magic Tree House series, sometimes with Osborne's husband Will.

Mary Pope Osborne grew up in a military family, alongside her sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, her twin brother, Bill, and younger brother, Michael.

Her father's career required the family to travel rather extensively and regularly move.

As a child, Osborne lived in Salzburg, Austria, as well as Oklahoma and Virginia.

Osborne herself says of the experience: "Moving was never traumatic for me, but staying in one place was.” After her father retired, her family settled in a small town in North Carolina. Osborne grew invested in the local community theater, spending all her free time there.

Mary Pope Osborne initially studied drama at the University of North Carolina; In her junior year, however, she switched to a major in religion with a focus on comparative religions.

She received the 1992 Diamond State Reading Association Award, 2005 Ludington Memorial Award from the Educational Paperback Association and the 2010 Heidelberger Leander Award.

In 2011, she attended the International Tokyo Film Festival for the premier of the Magic Tree House anime film and visited schools in the tsunami-hit area of Japan.

The film grossed 5.7 million dollars; Osborne donated all her proceeds into her educational works.

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.

She spoke of the pressure she feels as an author that children look up to, "for a child to value someone who writes books is so extraordinary."

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Magic Tree House series in 2012, Ms. Osborne created a Magic Tree House Classroom Adventures Program.

Ms. Osborne's mission with Classroom Adventures is to inspire children to read and to love reading while simultaneously helping kids to read at grade level by the end of 3rd grade.

Free of charge, the program provides a set of online educational resources for teachers and allows for Title 1 schools to apply for free Magic Tree House books.

Under Classroom Adventures, Ms. Osborne, in partnership with the First Book organization in Washington, D.C., has donated hundreds of thousands of Magic Tree House books to underserved schools.

Osborne's travels and experiences have factored largely into her own writing, while her writing has allowed her to experience some of the thrills of traveling, as she said, "Without even leaving my home, I’ve traveled around the globe, learning about the religions of the world."

She has also received awards from the Carolina Alumni Association, the Virginia Library Association and in spring 2013 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ms. Osborne served two separate terms as president of the Authors Guild and also chaired its Children's Book Committee.

She has since traveled extensively in the states and throughout the world, visiting schools and speaking on issues related to reading and books.