Our MTH Family
Will Osborne
An internationally produced and published playwright and book author and respected director, teacher and actor, Will Osborne enjoys a career in professional theater that spans four decades. His play Smoke & Mirrors, a comic murder mystery co- authored with Anthony Herrera, has been produced in theaters throughout the United States, as well as in South Africa, and Korea. In 2007, collaborating with Randy Courts, he provided book and lyrics for Magic Tree House: The Musical, a full-scale, Broadway-style family musical based on the bestselling series, which traveled to 54 cities around the country.
Will's writing for musical theater also includes Saddle Jazz, a Western Swing musical (music and lyrics by Nick Plakias); The Wonderful O, an adaptation of the James Thurber novella (also with Randy Courts), produced at the West Bank Café in New York and the Leonard Bernstein Institute in Nashville; and, collaborating with Randy Courts, Jenny Laird, Murray Horwitz, and Allen Toussaint, a collection of musical adaptations of Magic Tree House adventures that have been performed nationwide.
Will Osborne has authored more than a dozen books for children and young adults, many co-written with his wife, Mary Pope Osborne, including the Magic Tree House Fact Tracker series, two retellings of Greek mythology, A Time to Dance for the My America series, and a picture book, Sleeping Bobby, with award- winning illustrator Giselle Potter. He has also created several highly acclaimed multi-media shows for the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, N.C., two of which featured William Shatner and the late Walter Cronkite.
Will is a member of the Dramatists Guild, a founder of The Writers Group in New York, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – and lead vocalist and guitarist for the blues/R&B group WillPower.
Natalie Pope Boyce
Natalie Pope Boyce is co-author of the best-selling nonfiction Magic Tree House Fact Trackers and has written over thirty Fact Trackers with more in store. Like her sister, Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie grew up on Army posts all over the world. She has also worked as a children's librarian and as a teacher of English as a Second Language.
She is a seasoned traveler who lived in Ireland and Germany for several years before moving to Mexico, where she lived for ten years. Natalie now lives in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in a 175-year-old house, where she spends her time reading, writing, gardening, listening to music, and visiting with her sister, Mary.
ABOUT MAGIC TREE HOUSE®:
Widely regarded among parents, teachers, and librarians for its power to instill a passion for reading, Mary Pope Osborne's award-winning Magic Tree House series is an international phenomenon that has sold more than 143 million books worldwide since its debut in 1992, and has been translated into 39 different languages in over 30 international markets.
All Magic Tree House books are available in print, as e-books, and as Listening Library audio books, which are all narrated by Mary Pope Osborne.
In 2021, the first Magic Tree House Graphic Novel was released. Adapted by award winning playright, Jenny Laird, and illustrated by comic artists and sisters, Kelly and Nichole Matthews, many more Magic Tree House books will be transformed into Graphic Novels in the coming years. Mary is very excited for this new format to inspire children to fall in love with reading!
Magic Tree House Fact Trackers is a best-selling series of non-fiction books that expand on the Magic Tree House fiction books. Mary Pope Osborne's sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, is the author of over thirty-four Fact Trackers.
Visit MagicTreeHouse.com and the Magic Tree House Facebook page for more information about the series, activities, and more.
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RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN'S BOOKS:
Random House Children’s Books (rhcbooks.com) is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, and nonfiction, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books bring together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Penguin Random House LLC.