Stage Fright on a Summer Night

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Dear Readers,
    I wrote this book because I’ve always loved the theater. When I was growing up, I performed in many plays. I even married an actor and playwright! My husband, Will, and I both love plays by Shakespeare. So for the past two summers, we’ve enjoyed visiting friends in England who put on plays by Shakespeare on the grounds of a castle. We also like to visit the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London.
    My main research for Stage Fright on a Summer Night , though, comes from my memories of being onstage. Imagine waiting in the wings, heart pounding, palms sweating, knees shaking … Then you’re on!
    It’s one of the most frightening and fun experiences you can think of. So I hope you’ll be a little frightened and have a lot of fun when you share this adventure with Jack and Annie.
    All my best,



Text copyright © 2002 by Mary Pope Osborne.
Illustrations copyright © 2002 by Sal Murdocca.
    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
    www.randomhouse.com/magictreehouse
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Osborne, Mary Pope.
Stage fright on a summer night / by Mary Pope Osborne;
[Sal Murdocca, illustrator].
p. cm.—(Magic tree house; #25)
SUMMARY : Jack and Annie travel in their magic tree house to Elizabethan London, where they become actors in a production of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
and try to rescue a tame bear.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89482-4
[1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Theater—England—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction. 4. Tree houses—Fiction. 5. England—Fiction.] I. Murdocca, Sal, ill. II. Title. PZ7.O81167 Ss 2002 [Fic]—dc21 2001048231
    Random House, Inc. New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland
    RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks and A STEPPING STONE BOOK and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc. MAGIC TREE HOUSE is a registered trademark of Mary Pope Osborne; used under license.
    v3.0

For James Simmons



One summer day in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, a mysterious tree house appeared in the woods.
    Eight-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister, Annie, climbed into the tree house. They found that it was filled with books.
    Jack and Annie soon discovered that the tree house