Make a Magic Tree House Passport for Your Adventurous Readers

My daughter definitely went through a Magic Tree House phase. I don’t think she read all the original books (there are many more now), but she read a good chunk of them, plus some of the Merlin Missions and we had a fact book or two based on the series, too.

Kids love these adventurous books about a pair of siblings who travel through time to meet dinosaurs, Abraham Lincoln, Shakespeare, Emperor Qin of China and Cro Magons, to name just a few. Their combination of magic, time travel and a little bit of facts is irresistible to a lot of kids.

If you have a Magic Tree House fan or you’re getting ready to start reading the series, this Magic Tree House printable passport from Stories by Storie is a great thing to have to track your progress.

The passport included the first 36 books, and there are little clip art “stamps” that relate to the topic of each book. Print the passports and stamps in color or black and white and attach the corresponding one to the page when the child has read the book.

There are four different options for passport covers, and the stamps can be printed with one copy of each on a sheet for a single reader (or a few readers in your class) or you can print out a full sheet of the same stamp if you’re reading the books in the classroom.

This passport is available from Teachers Pay Teachers. The same person also has a huge bundle of Magic Tree House printable and digital activities that covers the first 40 books, which might be fun if you have kids who are really into the books.

The materials for each book include a summary, comprehension questions, vocabulary, a word search, a quiz, character graphic organizers and more. (Each book’s resources are also available individually if you only need the one/s you are teaching or reading as a group.)

[Photo: Stories by Storie]

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

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