Afternoon on the Amazon: Vampire Bats?

So, Jack and Annie escaped, and the monkey is MIA.
And Peanut is freaking out.
And now it’s almost night, and they’re about to just nope out of there without helping Morgan because they’re afraid of the vampire bats.
So they’re getting Peanut to lead them back to the treehouse now.
OK, yeah, they are back at the treehouse now, all without rowing back up the river. So why does this cover have the wrong version of the illustration?

Afternoon on the Amazon: Freeze!

OK, random tangent time. I’ve been getting the series with the newer covers, which normally have the old artwork slightly resized and with a new series logo. But I just now noticed this cover might be an originally rejected take on the old cover artwork where Jack and Annie have oars for the canoe when they shouldn’t have them. Unless I’m getting ahead of myself and they end up getting them in order to row back up the river to go back to the treehouse. Meh. What do I know? I don’t think I read this one as a kid.
But anyway. Now it’s pouring rain, and Annie is now convinced that the monkey is trying to lead them to the special thing for Morgan.
Oh, fun. Now it’s a straight-up thunderstorm.
So, Annie wants to play with the baby jaguar, but the protective mom just showed up.
And now the monkey is helping them get away.

So, Peanut doesn’t like the monkey. And the monkey’s throwing fruits at the boat. (That’s, like, the most kid-friendly thing it could be throwing.)
Annie almost fell out of the boat when scaring off the monkey.
And now it’s raining. Fun.
Oh, OK. Now the monkey just got a stick to pull the boat to shore.

And now they have no idea where they’re going.
So, yeah, they’re… on the Amazon. Somewhere. Who knows where, since it’s such a long river.
“Hey, Jack, look at the cool fish!” “Uh, Annie, don’t pet it. That’s a piranha. It’s gonna eat you.”
Oh, fun. The vine Jack was gonna use to pull the boat over to shore was actually a snake hanging from a tree.
And then the branch they were gonna use was a crocodile.
And now they’re gonna run into a monkey.

So, there aren’t any animals yet because they’re all hiding.
And apparently something might be following them, with all those breaking branches.
And now Jack and Annie are running across a bunch of ants.
They’re trying to run from the ants, but they forgot what tree the treehouse is in, and they got to a river with a conveniently placed canoe.
Oh, fun. They’re just going down the river without paddles.

So, apparently they landed in some bushes. Instead of up in a tree.
OK, yeah, the bush is closer to the ground than rainforest tree branches here.
Just kidding. They’re not actually in a bush. They’re in the top layer of trees. And Annie was just about to fall out of the sky because she thought she was closer to the ground.
So, the ladder apparently magically adjusts itself to the right length of tree.
And the jungle is so thick that it’s creeping Jack out.

No, but really? How do the books keep getting opened on their own when Peanut’s paws are too small? Magic, probably?
Well, this is a bit backwards from normal. Jack’s excited to go to the rainforest, but Annie isn’t. Because bugs, apparently.
And now Jack’s gotta remind Annie about rescuing Morgan.
Also, Jack’s worried about not being able to see a rainforest before they all get cut down. I mean, it’s been more than 20 years since this first came out, and he’s still not wrong, unfortunately…

So, Jack and Annie are going to make sure that the treehouse is still there with Peanut. It still is.
Peanut is a girl. Hmm…
Oh, OK, so this is a day after the last book.
And Annie gave Peanut a sock to use as a sleeping bag.
Annie wants Peanut to help find the next thing to help Morgan. By traveling with another conveniently open book.

So, I finally got a bunch more of these Magic Tree House books again, and the only one from this batch that has a familiar name from what I kinda remember reading as a kid is Dolphins at Daybreak, but that’s one I’ll be getting to a bit later.
Anyway, it’s been a while since I did this series for my blog (again), so thank goodness for the prologue (again).
So, Jack is eight and Annie is seven. I feel like I remember Annie was closer to five, so either I’m remembering wrong (which is probably the case) or that’s a minor continuity error.
OK, so Morgan is just referenced as a librarian from Camelot here. Because the whole half-sister of Arthur, plus with some versions of the legends having her, uh, involvement with Mordred is a lot to unpack for a series geared towards kindergartners.
Yep. The Treehouse is still a TARDIS.
And the kids still have to rescue Morgan.

And of course Aven’s pissed off again.
Yep. The Winter King still wants the Geographica for the Dragon Summoning instructions.
Oh, fun. The Chamenos Liber area is actually the semi-sunken remnants of a volcano.
So yeah, the Keep of Time is an endless tower that has doorways into various points in history. And time is frozen there until a door’s threshold is crossed.
I’m over here facepalming because Artus left the prehistoric door open, a dinosaur wandered through, and then they accidentally invented the Loch Ness Monster.
Oh no… one of the last doors before the one where they’ll meet the Cartographer smells like cinnamon…