Dolphins at Daybreak

This installment in the Magic Tree House series, a children's chapter book series in which siblings Jack and Annie travel through time and space via an enchanted tree house, follows the pair on an underwater adventure to solve a riddle and earn the title of Master Librarian.

Before dawn, Jack, a cautious, research-loving boy who wears glasses, stares out his kitchen window thinking about a vivid dream. In the dream, Morgan le Fay, a magical librarian from the legendary court of Camelot, told him the magic tree house has returned and that she is waiting for him. His adventurous younger sister, Annie, rushes in with exciting news: She had the exact same dream. Convinced that a shared dream must be real, they tell their parents they are going for a quick walk and run to the Frog Creek woods. High in the tallest oak, they find the tree house. Morgan le Fay, a lovely old woman in a red velvet robe, greets them from the window.

Morgan explains that she sent the dreams because she needs help. Merlin the Magician has kept her too busy to collect books for Camelot's library. She tells Jack and Annie they can gather books through time on her behalf, but only if they first become Master Librarians by solving four riddles that test their research skills. She hands them an ancient scroll containing the first riddle and a book titled Ocean Guide to help them find the answer. Annie points at the book's cover and wishes to go there. The tree house spins, and when it stops, Morgan is gone, leaving only the scroll and the ocean book behind.

The tree house now rests on the ground near the ocean. Annie unrolls the scroll, and they read the riddle together: "Rough and gray as rock, / I'm plain as plain can be. / But hidden deep inside / There's great beauty in me. / What am I?" (11). Jack discovers the pink ground beneath them is a coral reef, built over time from stacks of tiny coral skeletons. At the water's edge, Annie finds a strange machine that looks like a huge white bubble with a big window. Jack identifies it from the ocean book as a submersible, or mini-sub, a small vessel used by ocean scientists to study the sea floor. Despite Jack's warning not to touch anything, they climb inside to look around. Annie presses a few keys on the built-in computer, and before they can escape, the mini-sub slides off the reef and dives into the deep ocean.

Jack panics, but Annie figures out that arrow keys on the computer can steer the sub. She persuades Jack to stay briefly, arguing that the riddle's answer must be somewhere in the ocean. They pass through a dazzling underwater world of colorful coral and thousands of fish. Jack takes notes on everything they see, including a huge starfish, a pink jellyfish, a blue sea horse, a stingray, and a giant clam. Two dolphins then appear at the window, tapping their noses against the glass. Annie names them Sukie and Sam and suggests dolphins might be the riddle's answer because they are gray and plain yet beautiful inside. Jack points out that the riddle says "rough as a rock" (29), and dolphin skin is smooth, so the answer does not fit. The dolphins swim away.

Jack decides they need to head back. He presses a book icon on the computer and brings up the ship's log, a digital diary kept by the oceanographer who used the sub. Entries from the previous week reveal that cracks appeared in the hull, worsened over several days, and could not be fixed. The oceanographer returned the sub to the reef and left it to be transported to a junkyard. Jack and Annie realize they are traveling in a broken vessel. Annie presses a waves icon, and the sub begins to rise.

As they ascend, two enormous eyes peer out from behind a giant sea plant. Eight long arms emerge: a giant octopus. It wraps its tentacles around the sub, its rows of suckers gripping the window and stopping the vessel. Water begins dripping from cracks in the ceiling. Jack reads aloud that the octopus is generally shy but curious, and that its suckers grip with nearly unbreakable strength. Annie politely asks the octopus to let go. When that fails, Jack yells at it. The octopus squirts a cloud of black ink and disappears. Jack then reads that the octopus squirts ink to escape its enemies, particularly sharks. A shadowy figure approaches through the clearing water: a hammerhead shark, far bigger than the dolphins.

The mini-sub bursts through the surface and bobs on the waves. Jack and Annie feel a moment of relief, but water is now rising from cracks in the bottom as well. Jack spots the reef in the distance, but when Annie presses a steering key, the computer goes dead. With water up to their knees, they decide they must swim. Jack reads in the ocean book that if one encounters a shark, one should not splash but swim calmly away. They agree to use the breast stroke, and Jack stores his glasses and the book in his backpack before they slip into the ocean.

Jack spots the shark's dark fin zigzagging toward them but decides not to tell Annie so she will stay calm. He swims faster, and Annie matches his speed. The reef proves farther away than Jack estimated, and exhaustion sets in. They flip onto their backs and float, but Jack grows too tired even to float and begins to sink. Then something slippery pushes against him. He fears the worst, but when he opens his eyes, he sees a dolphin's shiny gray head nudging him. Annie is already clinging to the fin of the other dolphin. The two dolphins pull Jack and Annie smoothly through the water to the reef. In the shallows, Annie hugs and kisses Sukie, and Jack, won over by Sam's affectionate nuzzling, hugs and kisses Sam as well. The dolphins chatter, nod at the children, leap high into the air, and swim away.

Sitting in the shallow water, Jack and Annie each confess they saw the shark while swimming and each swam faster to push the other to keep up, meaning they swam "double-fast" (57). Jack feels defeated because his notebook and the ocean book are soaked and the riddle remains unsolved. As they walk across the reef toward the tree house, Annie steps on a large, rough, gray shell covered in ridges. They both recognize that its appearance matches the riddle perfectly. Jack finds the shell's picture in the waterlogged book and reads that it is an oyster. Inside some oysters, a pearl forms when a grain of sand irritates the animal, which coats it in pearly material over several years, creating a natural treasure. Rather than force the shell open, Annie gently places the oyster back in the water, trusting Morgan's promise that they will know if they are correct.

Back in the tree house, the scroll lies open on the floor. The riddle has faded, replaced by one shimmering silver word: "OYSTER" (63). Jack sighs with relief. They have solved the first of four riddles on the path to becoming Master Librarians. Annie opens a book about Pennsylvania and wishes to go home. The tree house spins, and they arrive back in the Frog Creek woods at dawn, with no time having passed. Walking home, Jack notes the oyster was on the reef all along. Annie replies that they would have missed all the fun, calling the dolphins "the true pearl in the oyster" (67). Jack smiles, agreeing the dolphins made up for everything. They slip into the house and head upstairs to change their soaked clothes, truthfully telling their mother that their shoes never got wet.