Dinosaurs Before Dark 
This is a Guided Reading Level M, DRA 28. It is on level for the beginning of third grade.
This is the first book in the Magic Tree House series. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Magic Tree House books are beloved by series-devouring children everywhere. They feature a brother-sister team of Jack and Annie who take on all sorts of time travel adventures.
Their adventures begin when they spy a tree house they’ve never seen before. Upon further investigation, it proves to be full of books! It soon becomes clear that if you look at a book and wish you were in that time or place, you would be magically transported there. In this case, they end up in the time of the dinosaurs.
The dialog is simple and the vocabulary (apart from dinosaur names) is fairly dull. I cringe at how often Annie describes dinosaurs as “nice.” The plot was pretty basic, as the children basically just take a quick tour of the dinosaurs and return home. Having read other Magic Tree House books, I found this to be less involved (and also less interesting than some of the others).
Verdict: This remains a top pick for advanced K-1 readers. The presence of both a girl and boy main character makes it accessible to all children even those that heavily prefer reading books about children of their own gender. And hopefully it will open their minds a bit about reading books featuring characters of the opposite gender. I also love that they show readers a bit about history.
Sex, Nudity, Dating –Annie blows kisses to dinosaurs.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – Jack mutters that he’s going to kill his sister in that brotherly, annoyed way. There is no concern that he actually intends to kill his sister.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – The children encounter dinosaurs, most are “nice” but they do run into a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
