Dragon of the Red Dawn

This book is part of the Magic Tree House Merlin Missions series, a children's fantasy adventure series in which siblings Jack and Annie travel through time using a magic tree house. In a previous adventure, the magician Merlin awarded them the Wand of Dianthus, a powerful magic wand shaped like a unicorn's horn.

Early one morning in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania, two young sorcerers from Camelot, Teddy and Kathleen, wake Jack and Annie and summon them to the magic tree house. Teddy explains that Merlin is unwell: The aging magician complains of growing old, says life is full of sorrows, and refuses to eat or sleep. Morgan le Fay, Camelot's magical librarian, wants Jack and Annie to find four secrets of happiness to share with Merlin. She believes the first secret lies in old Japan and provides a research book to guide them.

Before departing, Teddy and Kathleen review the three rules of the Wand of Dianthus: It works only for the good of others; it works only after they have tried their hardest without magic; and it works only with a command of exactly five words. Jack points to the Japan book and wishes to go there, and the tree house transports them.

Jack and Annie land in the Imperial Garden of Edo, a city in Japan in the late 1600s, later renamed Tokyo. From the research book, they learn that while this era was a time of peace and prosperity, Japan was completely closed to the outside world. Citizens were frequently checked for passports, and anyone without one could be treated as a spy. Jack and Annie have no passports, and the wand's rules prevent them from creating some.

They hide from a procession of the shogun, the country's military ruler, and his samurai warriors. Three samurai spot the children and stop them at swordpoint, accusing them of being spies. A small, older man in a straw hat intervenes, pretending Jack and Annie are his students. The samurai bow, calling him "Most Honored Master," and leave. The man introduces himself as Basho, a celebrated poet, and invites the children to travel with him for the day. When Jack asks what Basho teaches, Basho says his students learned how to listen to a cricket in a woodpile and think like a frog. Jack assumes these are warrior skills, not realizing they are lessons in quiet attentiveness to nature.

Basho leads them out of the garden by boat, floating downriver through Edo. A fisherman mentions the river is dangerously shallow from a long drought. Basho explains that dry weather makes the people fear fire; 25 years earlier, a terrible blaze destroyed half the city. At a fish-market dock, Jack and Annie spot samurai checking passports, so they grab wicker baskets, hoist them onto their heads, and blend in with fishermen to avoid discovery.

Basho takes them across the Great Bridge, where Jack sees Mount Fuji in the distance and feels the beauty of everything around him. Basho tells them the Japanese call their world "the floating world" because it seems to float on beauty. They watch puppeteers act out the legend of the Cloud Dragon, a guardian creature that commands rain and has the power of flight.

At a teahouse, Jack's clumsy use of chopsticks draws suspicious stares from two samurai. Later, at a sumo wrestling match, the same samurai demand passports. Basho, whom everyone reveres as a master poet, introduces Jack and Annie as his students. The samurai ask to hear the children recite poems; Annie recites "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," which they admire, but Jack's improvised verse raises doubts. A drumbeat distracts the samurai, and Basho leads the children to a quieter neighborhood.

Basho brings them to a tiny bamboo hut beside a banana plant by the river and welcomes them to his "castle." He took his name from the tree, as basho means "banana tree" in Japanese. While Basho draws water for tea, Jack looks him up in the research book and discovers that Basho is one of Japan's greatest poets, whose short poems speak to people as clearly today as they did centuries ago.

Basho explains that he trained to be a samurai but was unhappy, wanting only to write poetry. He reads them a poem he has been working on: "An old pond: / a frog jumps in— / the sound of water" (62). Jack thinks it is only a beginning, but Basho explains it is the whole poem, capturing a small moment in time. Listening again, Jack feels as though he is right there by the pond. Basho gives the poem to Jack.

That night, lying on mats in the dim hut, Jack notices a patch of moonlight on the floor and reaches out to touch it. He listens to the banana leaves rustling and feels as though he is swaying with them. Annie says she feels like a tiny cricket going to sleep in a cozy place. They drift off peacefully.

Fire bells jolt them awake. The dawn sky is black with smoke. Basho rushes to help, and Jack and Annie join a bucket brigade hauling water from the river. Despite everyone's efforts, the fire leaps over the river and threatens to destroy all of Edo.

Annie remembers the Wand of Dianthus back at Basho's hut. They race back, and after failed attempts that use the wrong number of words, Annie shouts "Put out the fire, please!" A blinding light transports them to Mount Fuji, where a gigantic Cloud Dragon, the creature from the puppet show legend, rises from the clouds. Annie and Jack climb onto its back and command it to make rain. The dragon breathes out storm clouds, and rain pours across Edo, extinguishing the fires and filling the rivers and ponds.

The dragon rears up and Jack and Annie tumble into the river near Basho's home. They find his hut burned to ruins, destroyed before the rain arrived. Basho sits beside his surviving banana tree, clutching his writing box. He tells them the ancients called fires "the flowers of Edo" because after destruction, a good new thing takes its place, just as flowers return after winter.

Basho accompanies them by ferryboat back to the Imperial Garden. He quotes the saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and hopes his words might outlive him. Annie tells him not to be so sure. They bow, and Basho walks away through falling cherry blossoms.

A samurai steps from the shadows and asks for their passports. Annie claims their passports burned in the fire and says they are Basho's students. The samurai asks for poems. Annie recites an original verse about a cricket staying dry on the hearth while rain falls outside. Jack composes a poem about moonlight and cool breezes still filling his heart from the night before. Delighted, the samurai walks away, and Jack and Annie rush to the tree house and wish themselves home.

Back in the cold Frog Creek woods, Annie panics because they forgot to find a secret of happiness. They review their experiences and realize their happiest moment was lying in Basho's hut, touching the moonlight and listening to the banana leaves. They connect this to Basho's teaching about finding beauty in small things, the same attentiveness he meant when he spoke of listening to a cricket and thinking like a frog. They conclude that a secret of happiness is paying close attention to small things in nature, and that Basho's poem will help Merlin understand. Walking home, Jack notices wildflowers, leaf buds, and green moss in the March sunlight. He feels he is seeing spring for the first time and feels truly happy in the sparkling morning light.