Twister on Tuesday (Magic Tree House, No. 23)

When Jack and Annie travel back to the Kansas prairie in search of "something to learn," they gain an understanding of how hard life was for pioneers and they experience the terror of a tornado.

In book 23 of the Magic Tree House, award-winning author Mary Pope Osborne's popular young adventure series, siblings Jack and Annie travel back to American pioneer times. Their task, assigned by mysterious Camelot librarian Morgan le Fay, is to find "something to learn." When their magic tree house alights on a Kansas prairie in the 1870s, Jack and Annie quickly find a one-room schoolhouse with classes in session. Something to learn! After an all-too-brief school day, the two return to the tree house with their mission completed. But wait: "In the distance, twisting black clouds had dropped out of the storm clouds. They swirled into a funnel shape." A twister! And the young teacher and students in the school don't realize there's a storm cellar under the floor. Jack and Annie must brave the howling winds to return and save their new friends.

Osborne's insatiable devotees will devour her latest adventure story, following Civil War on Sunday, Revolutionary War on Wednesday, and all the other titles in this exciting series. What better way to learn about history than to travel through time and space, experiencing it firsthand? (Ages 6 to 9) --Emilie Coulter