The story of The Magical Gingerbread House is meant to encourage children to learn for the sake of learning. While this book is about Mrs. Williams' gifted class that includes 8 1/2 year old Nathaniel, it is written for all older elementary students. Nathaniel is a really smart student who is at least 2 years ahead of the rest of his regular classmates in his studies, which means he can attend Mrs. Williams' class. Nathaniel enjoys Mrs. Williams' class which, like many gifted classes, consists of a lot of research and projects. Her class uses themes, such as countries, on which to base their studies. Nathaniel is a very creative child who always takes what he learns in class to learn more outside of class. Mrs. Williams encourages research and outside-of-class learning by giving students who do further research and projects at home a few minutes of class time to present to the class what they have learned. She also provides students with character lessons that she prints on the board after they present to the class. This magical adventure is both imaginative and informative. The illustrations provide a fun way to see the story through the use of cartoon characters. The Magical Gingerbread House is the first in a series based on Mrs. Williams' class. Other books in this series will feature some of her other students.