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Bye-bye Summer!

Stage Fright on a Summer Night (Magic Tree House #25)The Summer Games are over and what a spectacular show it was! A big round of applause not only to the great Olympians, but to the scores of organizers, performers, and volunteers who made it all happen! So starts the l00000ng, four year wait for the 2012 Olympics, to be staged in merry ol' London town!

And while you're waiting, write finis to your Olympic Saga with a taste of Elizabethan in Mary Pope Osborne's Stage Fright on a Summer Night (Magic Tree House #25). Share the stage with Jack and Annie as they become actors in Shakespeare's immortal fairy tale, Midsummer Night's Dream. Better yet, try out your own thespian skills and read the original! And remember, take fashion notes on those fantastic, over-the-top costumes (A True Tudygirl never passes up a chance to play dress up!)! London

So lose the stage fright and get into the act! Stage Fright on a Summer Night and Midsummer Night's Dream are perfect ways to bid adieu to all things summer!

Beijing Or Bust

Day Of The Dragon-King (Magic Tree House 14, paper)Continue your Olympic journey from Greece to China in Mary Pope Osborne's The Day of the Dragon King (Magic Tree House #14). You'll travel with Jack and Annie as they endeavor to save the ancient, Chinese myth (The Cowherd and The Silk Weaver) from a crazed, book-burning (I mean bamboo-burning!) emperor! (Did you know, before the Chinese invented paper, they wrote their books on long, bamboo slabs?)

Follow the yellow, silk road and you'll discover China, its rich history and ever-resilient people. Halfway through, you'll stumble onto a chance encounter with Emperor Shi-Huang Di, China's first emperor and one of history's most controversial rulers! (Listen up, Tudygirls. No matter how fabulous the outfit, don't mess with the man in the beaded hat and the "to-die-for" silk robe!!!)

So read on. Those 7,000+ terracotta warriors are waiting to be rediscovered. And the Great Wall has secrets to share. Meowry reckons The Day of the Dragon King is the purr-fect complement to all your Olympic dreams.

Now, go for the gold and follow your own inner, silk road!

I'm Having A Ball...

And I hope you are too! So what better way to scrapbook those winning sports moments than with a Tudy Frame! You know the drill - download the image, resize to fit your pic, and cut out (be careful!). Ready, get set, and get framed!

An Olympic Feat

Magic Tree House Research Guide #10: Ancient Greece and the Olympics: A Nonfiction Companion to Hour of the Olympics (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))On you mark, get set...

Run with The Magic Tree House's Jack and Annie, as they race against time to retrieve a lost story in ancient Olympia! Read Mary Pope Osbourne's Hour of the Olympics, and its primer, Ancient Greece and the Olympics, for real time travel (about 3,000 years ago!) to the first ever Olympic games!

You'll meet Plato, Nike (sooo NOT the shoe!), and that famed, winged wonder, Pegasus! You'll read about what the ancient Greeks wore (a Tudy note: tunics and sandals ruled!) and ate (baklava, anyone?). You'll wake up in Athens and shop around the agora (poso kami, Tudygirls, I'll trade my obolos any time for the golden fleece!) And most importantly, you'll meet the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus. But here's the clincher: it wasn't all fun and games. Unfortunately, girls were usually caught between Scylla and Charybdis! Girls couldn't compete in the first Olympic games ! No girls allowed, that was the golden rule (excuuuse me, did Athena know about this?!)!

So, cheer on whenever you see female athletes competing! Women weren't always welcomed in the Olympics or any sporting event for that matter! It's been a long time coming.

Here's to all female athletes the world over: Godspeed! May the gods be with you!

08 08 08

It's Olympic Fever! From Athens, Greece to Beijing, China, on August 8, 2008, the whole world's tuning in to the greatest games!

And aren't those five mascots just tooooo cute? Meet Fuwa - Beibei the Fish, Jingjing the Panda, Huanhuan the Olympic Flame, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope, and Nini the Swallow! Did you know that the first syllable of their names form the greeting "Beijing Huanying Ni" or "Welcome to Beijing"? And the color of each mascot was chosen to match the colours of the Olympic Rings?

So bring the Olympics close to home - watch your favorite games and cheer for your team! Get into sports - learn a new one or join a team, even if it's just in your neighborhood! And design your own mascot for even more team spirit! Let the Games begin!