Dinosaurs Before Dark

The magic tree house is central to the series itself, symbolizing imagination, education, and learning as Jack and Annie travel through time. In Dinosaurs Before Dark, the children first stumble upon this mystery and quickly discover that there is more to meet the eye when it comes to this structure that appears in Frog Creek woods. By the time the siblings return from the Cretaceous Period, they’re hooked on whatever adventures await them in the magic tree house, suggesting a future of learning and discovery ahead of them.

Annie calls the tree house “the highest tree house in the world” (3), and while she is likely exaggerating, her words demonstrate the awe she feels as a child looking up at it. Annie, unafraid and daring, races inside and stumbles upon another mystery: who built it? Jack’s curiosity stops his efforts to get her to come down, and he soon “gripped the sides of the rope ladder and started up” (6). The presence of the books in the treehouse offers evidence that whoever owns the tree house and its contents is well-read and curious, just like them. However, at this point in the series, Osbourne offers little information about this mysterious person beyond the books, the tree house, and the medallion.