玛丽·波·奥斯本

玛丽·波·奥斯本（Mary Pope Osborne，1949年5月20日—）。居于美国。是美国儿童文学作家，曾获得蓝灯书屋终生成就奖和美国教育平装书协会勒丁顿纪念奖，最有名的作品是《神奇树屋》（Magic Tree House series）。主角为杰克和安妮两名居于宾夕法尼亚洲的小孩。

其夫威尔·奥斯本多年来一直致力于剧场工作，曾经担任演员，导演以及剧本作家。

Mary Pope Osborne (born May 20, 1949) is an American author of children's books and audiobook narrator. She is best known as the author of the Magic Tree House series, which as of 2017 sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. Both the series and Osborne have won awards, including for Osborne's charitable efforts at promoting children's literacy. She had 3 other siblings, and moved around in her childhood before attending the University of North Carolina. Following college, Osborne traveled before moving to New York City. She somewhat spontaneously began to write, and her first book was published in 1982. She went on to write a variety of other children's and young adult books before starting the Magic Tree House series in 1992. Osborne's sister Natalie Pope Boyce has written several compendium books to the Magic Tree House series, sometimes with Osborne's husband Will.

Early life and education

Mary Pope Osborne grew up in a military family, alongside her sister, Natalie Pope Boyce, her twin brother, Bill, and younger brother, Michael. Her father's career required the family to travel rather extensively and regularly move. As a child, Osborne lived in Salzburg, Austria, as well as Oklahoma and Virginia. Osborne herself says of the experience: "Moving was never traumatic for me, but staying in one place was.” After her father retired, her family settled in a small town in North Carolina. Osborne grew invested in the local community theater, spending all her free time there.

Mary Pope Osborne initially studied drama at the University of North Carolina; In her junior year, however, she switched to a major in religion with a focus on comparative religions. After graduating from UNC in 1971, Osborne and a friend went traveling. For six weeks, she camped out in a cave on the island of Crete. Following this, Osborne joined a small group of Europeans heading to the East. Their journey took Osborne through eleven countries throughout Asia, including Iraq, Iran, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Pakistan. The trip came to an end when Osborne experienced blood poisoning requiring her to stay in a hospital for a couple of weeks where she read The Lord of the Rings. Remarking on her travels Osborne said, ""That journey irrevocably changed me. The experience was gathered that serves as a reference point every day of my life. I encountered worlds of light and worlds of darkness--and planted seeds of the imagination that led directly to my being an author of children's books."

After her travels, Osborne lived in California, Washington D.C., where she met her husband Will at a theater performance, and New York, where the couple moved after getting married in 1976. During this time, she held jobs including medical assistant, travel agent, drama teacher, bartender, and as an assistant editor for a children's magazine.

Career

Mary Pope Osborne has written over 60 children's stories, with a variety of genres and for a range of children to young adult audiences. Her books have been named to a number of the Best Books of the Year Lists, including, School Library Journal, Parents’ Magazine, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and Bank Street College. She has received honors from such organizations as the National Council of Teachers of English, The Children's Book Council, and the International Reading Association. She received the 1992 Diamond State Reading Association Award, 2005 Ludington Memorial Award from the Educational Paperback Association and the 2010 Heidelberger Leander Award. She has also received awards from the Carolina Alumni Association, the Virginia Library Association and in spring 2013 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.