CPS Students First To See 'Magic Treehouse' Musical
By Lisa Fielding
(CBS) -- Seven-year-old Octavian Solis shows off his brand new book "A Good Night for Ghosts," volume 42 of the beloved Magic Tree House series.
"I love Magic Tree House 1, 2 and 3. I can't wait to read this one," he says. "The best part of these books is that they take you on adventures."
Solis and hundreds of other Chicago Public Schools students were the first to see "Magic Tree House: A Night in New Orleans," now playing at the Broadway Playhouse.
"It was great. I loved it," Solis said, clapping.
Author Mary Pope Osborne was on hand for the musical's debut in Chicago.
"We've started to turn some of the books into musicals that we hope will go with our literacy mission to get the books into the hands of kids," she says. "It's also about exposing kids to the wondrous world of imagination through theater and the arts."
Emerald City Theatre collaborated with Random House books to give the kids free copies of one of the books in the series. Osborne has written more than 100 books for children and young adults over the years.
"My husband I have been married for almost 40 years, and that's when I started writing. We are probably more like children, than we really know. I think children's books authors mostly tap into themselves," Osborne says.
From 1993 to 1997, Osborne served as president of the Authors Guild, the country's leading organization for published authors.
Friday's performance was also live-streamed to 15,000 other kids within the CPS system.
"Those kids all got a book, too, to go along with the show so they can see how you put story together with music and acting and how many people can be involved with the imagination. Once children catch the fire of reading and performing, there's no going back."
Osborne routinely donates books to schools in need, including a donation of an entire Magic Tree House boxed set to every third grader in Newark, N.J., in 2012.
"We soon realized that there are a lot of kids who don't own a book. I became obsessed to get kids in the hands of kids who don't own books," she says. "That's where we started our Classroom Adventures program, which gives free books for teachers who apply, to get books in their classrooms. We also do book giveaways where our shows are being performed."
"Magic Tree House: A Night in New Orleans" runs through April 17th.