I just finished reading Carnival at Candlelight. My first reaction was that I really enjoyed the book and thought that young children would also enjoy it. The book’s format was easy to follow since everything was in the sequence in which it occurred I feel that it would make it easy for a young reader to be able to read and keep up with the events that occurred during Jack and Annie’s adventure. I also really like that Mary Pope Osborne included the letter from Merlin as it would have looked to Jack and Annie when they were reading it. It helps the reader realize that it is a letter. Similarly, I liked that the entries from the research book were indented and bold so they stood out more as something different and not just dialogue from the book. This would be a great book to use in the classroom because of the many other topics that could be linked to the book. It mentions art with Lorenzo, you can study the history, geography and cultural identity of Venice as well as introducing the idea of mythology. I also really liked that the book encouraged imagination and adventure. The back of the book also included helpful and interesting additional entries by the author giving “More Facts About Venice” and about the “Author’s Research” allowing the reader to have a better understanding of why Osborne wrote the book and how; this could also lead to further discussion about other authors that the class enjoys. The only problem I had with the book was that it seemed like Annie was the one always getting them into trouble, running into the palace, and Jack having all the answers, when choosing which magical rhymes to use. It just seems that it makes Annie seem like the troublesome sister. Even though Annie’s bravery helped them I just wish that Osborne would distribute the intellectual input of the two characters more equally. This feeling also comes from the fact that I have read another one of the Magic Tree House books and I did not really enjoy the way Annie was portrayed.