Eight-year-old Jack and his little sister, Annie, are playing in the woods during their summer holiday, when they find a mysterious tree house full of books. But these are no ordinary books . . . And this is no ordinary tree house . . The race is on .

Mary Pope Osborne is the author of over forty books for young people, including novels, picture books, biographies, mysteries, and retellings of fairy tales and myths. She was the president of the Author's Guild, the leading organization for professional writers in the United States, for two years and has won many different awards for her books.

She lives in New York City with her husband, Will, and their Norfolk terrier, Bailey - who sleeps on the top of Mary's desk every day while she writes.