Daily children’s book recommendations and events from Anita Silvey.
Discover the stories behind the children’s book classics . . .
The new books on their way to becoming classics . . .
And events from the world of children’s books—and the world at large.
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The Magic School Bus
Children around the country have either headed back to school or are about to do so. Much of the drama of these first days centers on the teacher: Who will he or she be? Will the teacher be nice or mean? Easy or hard?
The best I can wish for these children is that they might end up with the real life equivalent of my second-favorite fictional teacher: Ms. Frizzle. (My first favorite teacher remains Albus Dumbledore.) When Ms. Frizzle’s students arrive in class, they feel they have bad luck indeed. They have the strangest teacher in the school. Ms. Frizzle wears bizarre dresses and shoes with snakes and frogs on them and keeps a pet Iguana named Liz in the classroom. She makes her class conduct science experiments and read five science books a week. And while other classes get to go to the zoo, Ms. Frizzle plans to take her students to the waterworks, gathering facts about water before they do.
When it comes time to leave for the class trip, rather than a real bus driver, the Frizz herself sits at the wheel of a school bus that miraculously changes into an airplane! The children embark on an adventure that will teach them about science and water in a completely amazing way. Every page of this funny information book has been filled with facts about water, as well as banter between the children and Ms. Frizzle. When the students learn they will be studying volcanoes next week, they know to prepare for some pretty strange things.
In The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks, Joanna Cole’s text for ages four through eight is a perfect balance of understatement and irony, as Ms. Frizzle leads her students on one of the most exciting field trips of all times. Bruce Degen adds a great deal of humor and information in the drawings. From the first Magic School Bus book in 1986 to a television series based on the books, Ms. Frizzle has been leading students through all kinds of science trips—from exploring the solar system to going inside a beehive. All the Magic School Bus books demonstrate that science can be fun, exciting, and entertaining. And they also remind us that it might not be so bad to get the strangest teacher in school this year.
So, fasten your seat belt. You are going to love traveling with the Frizz, wherever she takes you.
Here’s a page from The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks:
Other books for this day
Also recommended:
- The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth by Joanna Cole, illustrated by Bruce Degen, and the other books in this series
Additional Information
A few other events for
- Happy birthday Ann Rinaldi (A Break With Charity; The Secret of Sarah Revere), Suzy Kline (Horrible Harry series; Herbie Jones), Suzanne Fisher Staples (Shabanu; Under the Persimmon Tree), and Sarah Stewart (The Gardener, The Library).
- It’s the birth date of Arlene Mosel (1921-1996), Tikki Tikki Tembo.
- Charles Rolls (1877-1920), cofounder of Rolls-Royce, was also born on this day. Read Shapes That Roll by Karen Nagel, illustrated by Steve Wilson.
- In 2003, the planet Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly sixty thousand years. Read Destination: Mars by Seymour Simon, and You Are the First Kid on Mars by Patrick O’Brien.
- Apparently it’s Just Because Day. Why? Well…just because. Read Just Because by Rebecca Elliot.