By Mary Pope Osborne
Jack and Annie land in ancient Egypt and help a queen's ghost reach the afterlife. It's a gentle first mummy adventure for a new chapter-book reader.
The tree house carries Jack and Annie back to ancient Egypt, where they meet the ghost of a queen who's been stuck for a thousand years, unable to move on until someone finds her lost Book of the Dead. They follow a black cat down into a pyramid, lose their way in the dark stone tunnels, edge past wrapped mummies and swooping bats, and finally work out the puzzle that sets her free. This is book three in a series a new reader can settle into for years, with short chapters and a picture on nearly every spread. If your child is deep in an Egypt phase, that's the whole draw here: real pyramids, real mummies, and a queen.
For a child who can't get enough of Egypt, this is often the book that pulls them into real chapter books, because what's waiting on the next page is a pyramid and a mummy. The chapters are short, the pictures do a lot of the work, and there's an actual mystery to solve. It reads fine on its own, and if the format clicks there are dozens more Magic Tree House books lined up behind it.