The Knight at Dawn

The story opens the morning after Jack and Annie’s first adventure in the magic tree house, which Osborne tells in Dinosaurs Before Dark. The children found a tree house in the woods near their home in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, and it transported them into the prehistoric era when they opened one of the books inside, pointed to a picture of a Pteranodon, and made a wish. The children returned home by finding a book with a picture of Frog Creek and making another wish.

Unable to sleep, Jack reviews the notes he took when he and his little sister traveled back in time to the Cretaceous Period. Jack doesn’t think his parents or his third-grade teacher, Ms. Watkins, will believe what he experienced. 

Annie comes to her brother’s room because she can’t sleep either. She suggests that Jack make a few additions to his notes, such as the gold medallion with an ‘M’ that they found during their time in the Cretaceous Period. Annie asks, “Aren’t you going to write about the magic person?” (3). She points out that someone must have built the tree house and filled it with books, but Jack insists that he’ll only write down things that he knows for certain to be facts.