Vacation Under The Volcano (Magic Tree House 13, paper)

Book Description

In their first adventure as Master Librarians, Jack and Annie go to the city of Pompeii to bring back an ancient story that is in danger of being lost forever. Little do they know they are saving the myth of Hercules! But before they can find it, the town's volcano erupts in a mighty explosion. Just when things look hopeless, Jack and Annie get some unexpected help from a certain mythic hero - and the rest, as they say, is history.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent read for my 7-year-old.......2007-09-15

My daughter could not put this book down once she started reading it. She loves the MAGIC TREE HOUSE series so much!

Historically accurate.......2007-06-21

We paired this with the Discovery Kids Magazine on Pompeii and found out that this book is a great way to find out about Pompeii and what happened, not just as a tourist attraction. It really puts kids in the moment of the time period. Every detail, down to the arrangement of the city was accurate. You can actually find a map replicating Pompeii and show your child where Jack and Annie went. Wow. Talk about subject integration! You know it is a great book when you can go down the list of Bloom's Taxonomy and use the book to create activities for every level.

We are leaving today to buy every book in the series.
Perfect for homeschooling.

MY BOY LOVES READING.......2007-01-02

My 1st grader hates to put them down, he would rather read Magic Tree House books, than play video games. He even reads them to his class and explains the story for show and tell. When he was in kindergarten, the teacher would also let him read the Magic Tree House books out loud, not given her a break, but to promote reading out loud. Great books!

Vacation Under the Valcano - Magic Tree House #13.......2006-01-29

Shortly before leaving for vacation, Jack and Annie remembered that they needed to go to the magic tree house to solve a mystery. Morgan said "your aventure is going to the Roman times you need to find this book or it will be lost forever""WOW! I always wanted to go to the Roman times this will be fun Annie" said Jack.

The magic tree house takes them to the seaside town of Pompeii during Roman times, which was 2,000 years ago. Many Romans traveled to Pompeii for vacation. They built large houses called villas and planted groves of olive trees on the slopes of a nearby mountain called Mount Vesuvius.

As they walked into the town of Pompeii, they noticed there were no birds and the stream under the bridge was dried up. Once in Pompeii, a soothsayer said "go home". Jack and Annie walked by the town forum, public baths and the Temple of Jupiter while looking for the library.

When they get to the library, they start looking for the book "Vir Fortissinus in Mundo". After finding the book, Jack opened the door and noticed everything crashing down in front of them. The ground started to shake as Mount Vesuvius erupted into a deadly volcano. "That is what the soothsayer meant" said Jack.

Jack and Annie ran from the library and headed back to the tree house. As they ran, a great cloud of pumice, ash, and burning rock formed over the city. When it rained down on Pompeii,it coverd the town. They used pillows to cover their heads from the falling ash.

The tree house was in the olive grove on the side of the mountain. Jack and Annie were running towards the volcano while everyone else was running away from it. When they got to the dried-up stream, the brige. They were trapped in the pumice, when a big, strong man named Hercules saved them. He pulled them from the pumice and took them to the other side of the stream.

Jack and Annie made it to the magic tree house, which took them back home. Morgan made them Master Librarians and they went on vacation with their family.

Volcanos wow!.......2005-10-25

My son and I have been reading the Magic Tree House series for the last couple months and we love them. These are the first books that my son has taken a real interest into, checking them out and reading them on his own. Vacations under the Volcano is our favorite one so far. After checking out a bunch from the library we finally decided to buy a set, and he was so disappointed that this one wasn't part of the set that he bought it seperatly on his own. This book has sparked a whole new interest for him.
I like that this story is based on a real historical event. As opposed to some of the others, like Sunset of the Sabertooth, which is one of my least favorites. As far as the danger goes, which another reviewer mentioned, I think Mary does a great job keeping the stories exciting. They would really become dull if the kids only strolled through meadows. For another scary one try Earthquakes in the Early Morning.
On a side note, its good to read them in order, but we didn't and you definatly don't have too.

Under the Volcano: A Novel (Perennial Classics)

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A work of art, a hallucinatory journey through the soul...
Sorry, Mr. Lowry
Eerily Depictive of Alcoholic Mind [11] [39] [T]
Lowry spells "fart" P-H-A-R-T...
This is an exceedingly beautiful novel.

Under the Volcano: A Novel (Perennial Classics)
Malcolm Lowry
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060955228
Release Date: 2000-04-25

Book Description

Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. Here the consul's debilitating malaise is drinking, and activity that has overshadowed his life. Under the Volcano is set during the most fateful day of the consul's life--the Day of the Dead, 1938. His wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac to rescue him and their failing marriage, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. Yvonne's mission is to save the consul is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half-brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one day unfold against a backdrop unforgettable for its evocation of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.

Under the Volcano remains one of the most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition and one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.

Customer Reviews:

A work of art, a hallucinatory journey through the soul..........2007-03-27

I like to tease my literary friends by saying "the film is always better than the novel", which sends them off into seizures. However, this is one instance that the book is vastly superior to the film, and it is undoubtedly one of the greatest books I have ever had the pleasure to read. Malcolm Lowry's prose style and mastery of the English language is beautiful to behold, and reading Under the Volcano fills you with wonder and awe. It's a masterful book, depicting the last day of an alcoholic (probably based on Lowry himself, who was a chronic alcoholic). The novel doesn't really have a narrative sense, but it has a hallucinatory, mystical quality that I adore. It reminds me a lot of an Alejandro Jodorowsky film, in that it's not straightforward at all, but it is a destination, and you will get there on Lowry's/Jodorowsky's path. As much as I like John Huston, I never cared for the film version, which I saw before reading the novel. If you want to see a great film about Lowry, a Canadian documentary called Volcano was made in the 1970's. It was released on VHS, but it is notoriously hard to find. It makes a great companion to this novel, as you understand the agony of Lowry's life, and the pain that he had to go through to produce one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. This is one of my favorite books, one you can read again and again and find something new in it. Lowry never really regained the heights of this novel again, and ended up leaving behind unfinished manuscripts that were edited by his wife, Margarite. Still, this is a true work of art, and we should be thankful that Lowry left this for us....

Sorry, Mr. Lowry.......2007-02-24

In a little over a year, I've read more than 50 novels. Of those, there was only one which I found unbearable to read and which I put down. Now there are two. Ironically, the first one, "Lord Jim", is actually referenced in this book, a bad omen if there ever was such a thing.

I wanted to like this book. Judging from the previous reviews, this was a brilliant masterpiece with such depth and subtlety that Lowry was a genius to behold. That my be true, but I soon lost all interest and hope of getting anything meaningful from this book. Every time I sat down to read, I found my eyelids becoming heavier, as the stream of consciousness narrative succeeding in draining out my life force. I gave it a chance, as I read nearly half, but finally I felt a great burden lifted off my shoulders when I decided to give up. And for someone who reads for pleasure, I could hardly justify slogging through this until the bitter end while I could be reading much more enjoyable novels.

Now perhaps I am not as "sophisticated" or "intellectual" as others who adore this work, but I just didn't "get it." Perhaps looking through the eyes of a drunk isn't the best idea, for the non-sequitur narrative was hazy and confusing. The countless symbolism with the "pariah dog" and plants seemed to be repeated endlessly, but with no clear connection (as far as I'm concerned) to the main storyline. The story is literally drowning in a whiskey river, filled to the brim with minute details and obtuse symbolism.

This novel takes place in a day, but seems to drag on endlessly with no climax or turning point. If you're up for a challenge, then by all means go for it. Otherwise, save yourself from this tedious novel and give this one a pass.

Eerily Depictive of Alcoholic Mind [11] [39] [T].......2007-02-12

In order to follow one party for one day, the reader of this book must intensely focus upon the vagaries attributable to a dipsomaniacal protagonist - the Consul.

Lowry's relatively autobiographical novel (at one time there is reference to leave Mexico far away where the protagonist will handwrite while his adoring wife types his manuscript), can confuse the reader on many levels. First, the Consul's inebriation by mescal contorts and warps perspectives and thoughts. Second, the liquor's effect has numbed his mind where at times he babbles and makes no sense - the worst being in the beginning when his wife returns and they calmly discourse although he makes no sense and his statements are actually frightening to the reader who is just being introduced to the Consul. Third, he phonetically spells many dialogues from Mexican speakers, so as to capture their pronunciation of English words. Fourth, he uses a great amount of Spanish words which loses those unfamiliar with the language for many interesting and untranslated portions of the book. And, lastly, the weaving of temporary with the past, through an intoxicated's mind, can be both perplexing and diabolically ingenious.

If that does not scare some readers, I pledge this truth to others: even though other readers assert this is easier to read than Joyce's comparable "Ulysses", know two things: "Ulysses" is about as difficult a read in the English language as there is; and this book is not easy as well.

But, it is worth reading. His ability to create hallucinatory sensation on paper is majestic. At certain times, I really felt I understood the mental anguish experienced by the d.t.'s as reflected by the Consul's perspective of events about him. Lowry's writing is both direct and embellished. The topic is much like Hemingway - English-speaking person residing amid Spanish-speaking people in the Spanish-speaking nation. His writing, however, reminds me more of John Fowles - "French Lieutenant's Woman" and "Magus."

This is a masterpiece of its own, and I greatfully appreciate having read this work of art. Just months ago I never heard of Lowry, now I intend on reading some of his other works.

Lowry spells "fart" P-H-A-R-T..........2007-02-04

This book is a complete masterpiece. No question about it. However, if someone told me they'd tossed it after five pages, I'd understand totally. Not that there is an intellectual baseline for enjoying it; rather, it's a question of the style of book one enjoys. This book is an elegy, a tone poem, prose for the sake of prose. Where one word suffices, Lowry inserts two. Where one metaphor is appropriate, Lowry inserts three. The stylization and the facility with words are the genius of the book, not the plot. (A drunk guy drinks a lot, interacts with his ex-wife and half-brother, then is shot by a policeman.) You'll know quickly whether this is your cuppa. Even if it isn't (as it isn't mine), the slog through pays dividends.

This is an exceedingly beautiful novel........2006-10-11

To focus on the picture and miss the brush strokes, I think, is to miss the point. To spend your whole life and all you could produce is one beautiful sentence, would that be enough? Or a whole novel of beautiful sentences? If this is all you had to recommend you, your entry into heaven would be guaranteed. Mr. Lowry probably finds heaven boring. I think the fact that there is not a real plot points to the fact the writing is what matters here. This is an exceedingly beautiful novel. I read some sentences over and over again in wonder. I read the sentences to my 8 and 10 year old who found them fascinating.

Magic Tree House Collection: Books 13-16: Vacation Under the Volcano/Day of the Dragon King/Viking Ships at Sunrise/Hour of the Olympics [UNABRIDGED]

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Great series
Not a Set of Books!

Magic Tree House Collection: Books 13-16: Vacation Under the Volcano/Day of the Dragon King/Viking Ships at Sunrise/Hour of the Olympics [UNABRIDGED]

Manufacturer: Listening Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0807207047
Release Date: 2002-03-26

Book Description

Read by the author
2 hrs. 35 mins.
2 cassettes

Jack and Annie are back with four more adventures in one audiobook collection.

This time, Jack and Annie must race against time to find an ancient library before it's buried in ash, take on a book burning emperor, escape a Viking invasion, and witness the first Olympics in ancient Greece.

Volume 4 includes:
Magic Tree House #13: Vacation Under the Volcano
Magic Tree House #14: Day of the Dragon
Magic Tree House #15: Viking Ships at Sunrise
Magic Tree House #16: Hour of the Olympics

Customer Reviews:

Great series.......2007-03-21

This is a great series...and it says right in the description it is a cassette audiobook. Its really awful someone would give this a bad review for any reason. A lot of audiobooks are still on cassette.. unfortunate but true.

Not a Set of Books!.......2007-01-10

I mistakenly thought these were books and as they were intended as a Christmas present, was terribly disappointed. You can't tell by the title that they are NOT books, but rather cassette tapes. I don't think my grandaughter even owns anything that would play cassettes in this day and age! Be careful what you are ordering!

Magic School Bus Chapter Book Boxed Set 9-16 (Science series - Butterfly Battle, Voyage to the Volcano, Electric Storm, Polar Bear Patrol, Amazing Magnetism, ... Under, Dinosaur Detectives, Books 9-16)

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Magic School Bus Chapter Book Boxed Set 9-16 (Science series - Butterfly Battle, Voyage to the Volcano, Electric Storm, Polar Bear Patrol, Amazing Magnetism, ... Under, Dinosaur Detectives, Books 9-16)

Manufacturer: Scholastic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0439688760

Under the Volcano (Penguin Modern Classics)

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"I Run To Death, And Death Meets Me As Fast..."
"I love hell. I can't wait to get back there."

Under the Volcano (Penguin Modern Classics)
Malcolm Lowry
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141182253

Customer Reviews:

"I Run To Death, And Death Meets Me As Fast..." .......2006-04-01

Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano (1947) is, like Herman Melville's Moby Dick (1851) and James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), a generally difficult-to-read 'classic' written around an archetypal theme. Here, alcoholic Geoffrey Firmin lives out the last hours of his life in a small Mexican town as the local people celebrate the Day of the Dead festival.

The problem with Under the Volcano is not that it is conceptually or thematically difficult to understand, but simply that it is boring and endlessly rambling, and thus reads as almost wholly inconsequential. Lowry makes little if any noticeable attempt to clearly communicate what he has to convey to his audience; most potential readers are likely to assume that Lowry basked comfortably in the masturbatory excess and obscurity of his style, and therefore have little sympathy with completing what has already proven to be an arduous, uninteresting novel.

Nor are readers who make this assumption incorrect, as Michael Schmidt makes clear in his thoughtful, earnest introduction.

Schmidt acknowledges immediately that "many readers find it hard to break into Under the Volcano. Their difficulty is a shadow of the trouble Lowry had in writing it," and that "the problem (and pleasure) is the style itself." Lowry himself admitted that the book, which he referred to as "a symphony, an opera, a horse-opera...hot music, a poem, a song, a tragedy, a comedy, a farce," "gets off to a slow start," which is certainly an understatement.

Schmidt also briefly outlines the history of the book's composition, which involved over nine years of rewrites, revisions, and, in the case of some chapters or sections, starting over from the beginning completely. Not surprisingly, Under the Volcano reads like a troubled, overwritten, and over-conceptualized text in the same way that F. Scott Fitzgerald's excruciating Tender Is the Night (1934) does.

Many readers may not agree with Schmidt when he calls the book a "masterpiece." Other writers as diverse as Isak Dinesen, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Jean Genet, and Gabriel Gabriel Marquez have written lengthy and frequently dense philosophical works that nonetheless communicated effectively with their audiences.

Some critics and scholars have taken the position that since Lowry was troubled by severe alcoholism, incarcerated in mental institutions several times over the course of his life, and died relatively young in mysterious and possibly suicidal circumstances, Under the Volcano, his one "success," as Schmidt refers to it, however obscure, must be tremendously worthwhile on at least some level; which, of course, is not necessarily the case by any means.

"I love hell. I can't wait to get back there.".......2005-09-10

Geoffrey Firmin, the former British consul to Mexico, is a prisoner of alcoholism. A victim of the shakes, he hears voices, talks to people who are not there, and hallucinates, though he is often able to hide the extent of his drinking. "True, he might lie down in the street, but he would never reel." On The Day of the Dead in 1938, his recently divorced wife Yvonne returns to Quauhnahuac, over which two smoking volcanoes loom, to try to persuade him to reconcile.

Coincidentally, Geoffrey's half-brother Hugh, with whom Yvonne apparently had a brief affair, also arrives that day, and the three share quarters, each hoping to recapture the past. When they take the bus to Tomalin to a bull-riding event, they see a wounded peasant dying beside the road, the peasant's horse with the number 7 branded on its rump, a tricky pesado, and a group of vigilantes, all of whom play a role in the climax which follows.

Rich with details, both of the external world of Quauhnahuac and the internal world of Geoffrey, the novel, first published in 1947, reflects Lowry's own experiences as an alcoholic. Geoffrey, a fully-rounded character, knows that he must stop drinking in order to function effectively, but he is unable to function at all without drinking. He both loves and despises Yvonne, wants to leave Mexico but wants to stay, and wants to find peace but creates chaos.

As Lowry reconstructs this one day in Geoffrey's life, the Day of the Dead, the pervasive symbolism adds to the feeling of overpowering doom--the smoking volcanoes ready to erupt, the "hideous pariah dog" that follows Geoffrey and Yvonne to the house, a barranca (chasm) which exists beside the house and which contains a dead dog, an Indian carrying "the weight of the past," vultures in the forest, Yvonne's release of an eagle in a cage, and sudden storms. All add weight and intensity to this powerful story of dissolution.

Despite the depressing subject matter and a frustrating main character who cannot or will not help himself during the novel's four hundred pages, the novel is breath-taking--elegant both in language and construction. Carefully plotted, filled with unique imagery, and enhanced by symbolism which brings it alive on new levels, it overwhelms the reader with its impact and approaches classical tragedy as the inevitable, doom-filled events play out. Though the novel includes peripheral political issues of the day--Mexico's instability and the philosophical conflicts between fascism and socialism--it is primarily a variation on the story of the Garden of Eden and the fall of man--full, rich, dense, and rewarding, despite its pervasive sadness. n Mary Whipple

Vacaciones Al Pie De Un Volcan/ Vacation Under the Volcano (La Casa Del Arbol Magic Tree House)

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Vacaciones Al Pie De Un Volcan/ Vacation Under the Volcano (La Casa Del Arbol Magic Tree House)
Mary Pope Osborne
Manufacturer: Lectorum Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1933032197

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Volcano Under Snow
John Colvin
Manufacturer: Quartet Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap (The Warriors)

ASIN: 0704371006

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Under the Volcano: A Novel (P.S.)
Malcolm Lowry
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0061120154
Release Date: 2007-04-10

Book Description

Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life—the Day of the Dead, 1938—his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse. She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical.

Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.

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Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry
Manufacturer: Reynal & Hitchcock
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000BH292Y

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