Summary Of Vacation Under The Volcano

Vacation Under the Volcano Matt Stevens

Period 2

The Magic Tree House is a series of books that most young readers have read throughout elementary school and early middle school. The series is based on two little kids by the names of Jack and Annie. In Vacation Under the Volcano the children travel back in time to the day when Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying Pompeii. Pompeii was a city included in the ancient Roman Empire and I absolutely love ancient history such as Rome, so this book is one of my all-time favorites. In the first set of books, the kids receive their “missions” from a woman by the name of Morgan le Fay. In this book, the woman assigns Jack and Annie to travel back to the ancient Pompeii and find a specific book she wishes to preserve from the volcanic eruption.

A few nights before traveling, Annie had a nightmare involving a volcano erupting and balls of fire that crushed tons of buildings. Despite having a nightmare that is essentially the destruction of Pompeii, they don’t know of the events that occurred that day in the city. When the kids land, Annie immediately feels a shake in the ground, but Jack tells her not to worry about it. As they continue to search for the ancient library to get the book, they meet a woman that supposedly is able to predict the future.

She says that everything is coming to an end. Being children, Jack and Annie are now terrified and run away from her to continue the search for the book. They find the library and search for the book, but then the volcano starts to erupt and the city goes crazy. People are attempting to flee, however, Jack and Annie can’t because the tree house won’t work without the book. They find the book and manage to get back to t...

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...ing that can really be done to help the children since they are simply that: children. Kids seem to fantasy all the time without actually knowing they are fantasying; they see it to be more real than just a joke. They would eventually grow out of the stage of using their tree house anyways. However, if their parents really wanted them to stop acting as if their adventures were real they could take them to a therapist and have them individually treated. I think the therapies that would work the best would be cognitive and behavioral.

Through behavioral, the therapist could use aversive conditioning so every time the kids attempt to use the tree house as a time machine they would be negatively reinforced by something. A cognitive therapist would use inoculation on the kids so they would realize what they are doing isn’t actually real so they know it’s just play.