Dingoes at Dinnertime is the twentieth installment to the Magic Tree House series. The book is preceded by Tigers at Twilight and succeeded Civil War on Sunday. It is revealed at the end of the book that the dog Jack and Annie have been helping, Teddy is actually a young boy who is training to be a sorcerer and accidentally changed himself into a dog. Morgan felt the boy needed to learn certain lessons before she would change him back which is why she sent them on the journeys with them. The boy, who tells Jack and Annie to call him Ted though they only do for the end of this book, later becomes a recurring character in the later books and one of their best friends and allies along with his selkie friend Kathleen.
Synopsis[]
The magic tree house whisks Jack and Annie away to Australia, where they must save some animals from a wildfire.
Chapters[]
- The Last Gift
- Sleepyhead
- Big Foot
- Joey
- Wildfire!
- Hand to Hand
- Rain, Rain, Rain
- The Rainbow Serpent
- What Boy?
- Dreamtime
Plot[]
From the steps of their porch, Jack and Annie heard Teddy's bark summoning them to the magic tree house. The children reassured their parents that they would be back in time for dinner. Inside the tree house, Morgan's note remained, reminding them that they needed four special gifts to break the spell on Teddy. They already obtained a watch from the Titanic, an eagle's feather from the Lakoda Indians, and a white lotus flower from an Indian jungle. There was only one gift left, it would come from a kangaroo. Since Jack knew kangaroos were native to Australia, it was no surprise when the tree house took them there for their next journey.
The tree house landed in a hot, arid jungle. Jack and Annie found themselves wearing wide-brimmed hats to protect them from the sun. In the distance, they spotted smoke, and assuming there were campers nearby, they decided to investigate. Along the way, they saw a pair of emus, a koala, and a kookaburra.
Annie spotted a kangaroo resting with a joey in her pouch, and when she spoke to Jack, she inadvertently woke the kangaroo. Initially wary, the kangaroo soon joined Annie in a hopping contest. Jack consulted the Australia book from the tree house to learn more about kangaroos. Out of nowhere, three dingoes appeared and chased the kangaroo. The mother kangaroo pushed her joey aside to protect it and tried to lead the dingoes away. Jack and Annie decided to stay with the joey until the mother returned. Jack used his backpack as a makeshift pouch to make the joey feel more comfortable.
The smoke grew thicker as they continued toward the source, and Jack realized it wasn't from campers, but from a wildfire. The kookaburra flew away from the flames. Jack insisted they needed to find the tree house before the fire reached it, but Annie ran back to rescue the koala, which was too slow to escape. When she returned, the smoke was so thick she could barely see. Teddy led them to a nearby cave. Inside the cave, they found shelter from the fire. On the cave walls, a strange painting of a white snake with glowing handprints beneath it caught their attention. Curious, Jack and Annie placed their hands over the handprints, and as thunder rumbled, Teddy led them to the entrance of the cave. The rain put out the fire, and Annie found a safe spot to leave the koala before she, Jack, and Teddy headed back to where the mother kangaroo had left her joey. Just as Jack began to worry that the fire or dingoes might have harmed the kangaroo, the mother returned.
The kangaroo gives Jack and Annie their last gift.
After Jack reunited the joey with its mother, the kangaroo gave them a piece of bark as a gift before hopping away. To their surprise, the bark featured the same painting they had seen in the cave. Jack recognized the markings from the Australia book as a representation of the Rainbow Serpent from Aboriginal mythology. Annie believed the Rainbow Serpent had brought the rain and pointed to a rainbow as evidence. With the fourth gift in hand, the children hurried back to the tree house and returned to Frog Creek.
Morgan, the tree house's owner, was there waiting for them. She took each of the gifts and shared brief lessons about them saying they will teach a boy to be better. Jack and Annie wonder what boy Morgan was talking about. When they looked again, Teddy had transformed into a boy. Morgan explained that the boy had once been her helper in Camelot. He had gotten too curious and accidentally turned himself into a dog after reading through her spell book. Now that the spell was broken, both Morgan and the boy were ready to leave, but she assured Jack and Annie that their adventures in the magic tree house were far from over.