Magic Tree House is a series of children's books written by American author Mary Pope Osborne. The series follows the adventures of Jack and Annie, two siblings who discover a magical tree house filled with books that transport them through time and space. Books 29-54 in the series continue to chronicle the magical journeys of Jack and Annie. Each book takes them to a different historical time period or geographical location, allowing young readers to learn about diverse subjects such as ancient Egypt, the American Revolution, dinosaurs, pirates, and more. Throughout the series, Jack and Annie encounter various challenges and meet important historical figures. They also emphasize the importance of teamwork, bravery, and curiosity.
Halloween 2016
Play the Magic Cat Academy to celebrateHalloween.
- The Story
- Making This Doodle
- Discover More Doodles
They also emphasize the importance of teamwork, bravery, and curiosity. The books are written in a simple and accessible style, making them suitable for early readers. The author incorporates educational elements, providing facts and information about the time periods and locations explored in each book.
Halloween 2016
Grab your wand and help fend off a ghostly catastrophe. Press play to swipe spells, save your friends, and help restore the peace at the Magic Cat Academy.
This year’s Halloween Doodle follows freshman feline Momo on her mission to rescue her school of magic. Help her cast out mischievous spirits by swiping in the shape of the symbols above the ghosts’ heads. And you’d better pounce fast—the ghost that stole the master spellbook is getting away!
From the team that created the Magic Cat Academy:
The inspiration for this year’s cat spell-casting game came from a real-life black cat named Momo that belongs to Doodler Juliana Chen. It seemed like a good opportunity for a cat hero, since the winner of last year’s Candy Cup Doodle was Yellow Witch and her black cat.
The original concept for the game involved a magic cat making a soup that was so good, it raised the dead. Connecting soup to Halloween proved too abstract, so the team shifted to the idea of a wizard school. This opened the door to a more robust world filled with interesting characters and paw-some themes..
The game includes five levels set in a school environment: the library, cafeteria, classroom, gym, and the building’s rooftop. We had lots of fun ideas for the resident foe of each level, including a chef ghost, a venn diagram ghost, and a big whistle ghost that summons other spirits.
Doodling for a whole Doodle game was very exciting for us. We had so many ideas for elaborate symbols to draw, like a witch’s hat that would appear on the character’s head after it was drawn! In the end we decided that for a short game against the clock, simple was better. Plans like the “Eiffel Tower spell” were abandoned, and similarly, gag spells didn’t make the cut. Regardless, we loved the process of dreaming up the possibilities.
That’s all for meow. We hope that every human, creature, and ghost has a purrfectly magical day.
Characters in magic cat academy
Among a variety of pitches, the one we settled on developing further was about a cat wizard who drew spells to eliminate enemies closing in on them. From there, I came up with story and motivations.
| The original concept was that you were brewing a soup so good, it raised the dead. |
| Another concept was that a dog and a cat, dressed in wizard/witch costumes, fought vacuums. |
| The concept we finally settled on was the scariest idea of all: taking an exam in school. |
| Early cat designs! |
| Ghost explorations |
| Final Boss exploration. I wanted the final boss to be very huge and intimidating, similar to Baby Bowser at the end of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. |
| Very early motion study for the tutorial. |
Magic Cat Academy Google Doodle by Justin Blackburn
Magic Cat Academy is a game that was created as a special Google Doodle, and to be played on the popular search engine Google. The purpose of this game was that it was made to celebrate Halloween, and therefore was published on the main Google web page on October 31st 2016. The story of Magic Cat Academy is that Momo the cat has to rescue her school of magic from evil ghosts. To destroy the ghosts, the player can use the computer mouse to draw different lines and shapes to create spells to protect yourself. Because the story is supposed to represent the holiday of Halloween, the game has these horrific themes and symbols of ghosts, black cats, dark magic, and also taking place in a stormy night.
The narrative is shortly told in a chronologically traditional structure that’s well known with adventure video games, where there are 5 levels, and at the end of each level, there is a boss that is more hard and difficult to defeat than the last. The pace of the game speeds ups more once you’re at the next level. The speeding pace is shown by having the ghosts go even faster towards you, and you have to quickly draw the shapes before they get you. The game’s ongoing difficulty is certainly familiar to the linear narrative that can be found in movies, plays, shows, and even some video games. The world of the game narrative is set up in the intro, which which takes place in a setting of a magical school and has characters that are anthropomorphic animals. The ghosts come out of the book Momo is reading, and tear up the school. This is the set up for the crisis that’s ongoing through the narrative. The protagonist of the game, Momo, is the person that has to resolve the crisis (the ghosts) that is occurring in the story. When you get to the final boss, it can be seen as the climax of the game. And once the boss is defeated, that’s when we get the happy ending. The only difference between the game and the linear narrative is that there’s no big turning point where the characters go through big changes beyond no return. Once Momo defeats all of the ghosts, the magic school is saved and everything goes back to normal. This kind of ending is very popular in classic video games.
The game is a combination of using visuals, gaming programmability and audio. Magic Cat Academy was made by different design groups, who worked on art design, engineering and production. The designers created the game to have a participatory narrative, where the player’s actions accommodate the gameplay. The visuals are important to the player because they need to see what actions they need to do to win the game. The player also needs the controls by using the mouse, which accelerates the gameplay and story. The audio is also important in that the game needs music and audio to help enhance the gaming experience. There is a blinking speaker icon in the intro, which is supposed to be a way to turn the player that the game requires you to listen to the sound, as it is important when playing. The game has lots of these features that make the player keep interest in playing the game. They would learn how to draw different shapes with the mouse, and learn how to complete the game by using the knowledge that they achieved from knowing the controls.
The target audience for this game is clearly for all ages, but mostly children. Even though Google is a website that everyone in the whole world uses, it would make sense for the website to promote a game for young audiences, since it would possibly help promote the holiday it’s supposed to advertising, and even Google itself. One of the ways Magic Cat Academy appeals to children is that it has a very cute and childish art style, and even though it has spooky and supernatural themes and imagery, it was clearly made to not be too scary to children.
One of the biggest importances of this game’s relations to the digital format is that Google wanted this to get people interested in Halloween, and would want to search about the holiday on their website. If people lose or finish the game, people can share their high score results via social media or e-mail. By sharing on social media, this helps promote the game more to wider audiences. Another way Magic Cat Academy relates to the digital medium of a search engine is that at the end of the game, people can press a button where you can actually search on Google about Halloween. Magic Cat Academy does its job of being a browser video game that helps add to Google’s celebration of the Halloween holiday. The game tells its story and narrative in the traditional manner as any other short browser game on the internet, and is important accommodating two different digital formats of being simple entertainment programming, and being part of a promotion that’s part of a popular website.
This allows children to learn while they enjoy the exciting adventures of Jack and Annie. The Magic Tree House series has gained tremendous popularity since its inception, and millions of copies have been sold worldwide. In addition to the main series, there are also companion books, activity books, and non-fiction companions that provide further learning and exploration for young readers. Overall, the Magic Tree House books offer a captivating blend of adventure and education, making them an excellent choice for children who love to explore different time periods and locations. With its engaging storytelling and valuable life lessons, the series continues to inspire a love of reading and learning in children around the world..
Reviews for "Embarking on a Magical Safari in Magic Tree House Book #38"
- Emily - 2 stars - I was really disappointed with the later books in the Magic Tree House series (books 29-54). They lacked the originality and excitement that made the earlier books so enjoyable. The stories felt repetitive and formulaic, with the characters going on yet another predictable adventure. The writing also seemed to have lost its magic, as the language and descriptions were bland and lacked imagination. Overall, I found these books to be a letdown and would not recommend them.
- Peter - 1 star - I found the later books in the Magic Tree House series (books 29-54) to be a complete bore. The plotlines were uninteresting and forgettable, and the characters had no depth or development. Each book followed the same predictable pattern, with Jack and Annie encountering a problem, finding a solution through some convenient magic, and then moving on to the next adventure without any real consequence. It felt like the author was just going through the motions to churn out more books without putting in any effort. Definitely not worth reading.
- Sarah - 2 stars - I used to be a fan of the Magic Tree House series, but books 29-54 were a disappointment. The stories became repetitive and lacked the creativity and excitement of the earlier books. It felt like the author was just trying to stretch out the series without any new ideas or meaningful content. The characters also seemed to lose their charm, with Jack and Annie becoming one-dimensional and predictable. I would recommend sticking to the earlier books in the series and skipping this uninspired middle part.