Date: Fri 24-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Cole-Degen-Frizzle-Bus-School

Full Text:

Cole & Degen Get The Magic School Bus Back On The Road

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

Eleven years ago, author Joanna Cole and illustrator Bruce Degen introduced

the world to a teacher named Ms Frizzle, a classroom of students, and a school

bus that magically transforms into different sizes and shapes for every

interesting field trip the fictional cast of characters takes. The series is

named after the wonderful vehicle the group uses, The Magic School Bus.

In the past decade, the group has visited a waterworks, been inside our planet

and inside a human body, gotten lost out in the solar system, visited the

ocean floor, gone back to the time of the dinosaurs, found themselves inside a

hurricane, and (a personal favorite) been inside a beehive. The true magic of

the series is that while taking young readers on each of these "trips," Ms

Degen and Mr Cole has also educated children in that sly teaching method of

teaching without making it obvious.

Ms Cole puts a lot of information into her stories, without coming off as

instructional or preachy. Each book has a main story to it - the field trip

that brings the teacher and students to each destination - along with side

conversations between students, or bulletin boards and billboards that happen

to contain information that coincides with each book's topic.

Mr Degen uses wonderfully busy illustrations that incorporate everything from

classroom bulletin boards (with reports by the students always on view) and

power plants, to the inside of power tools or natural wonders like waterfalls

or hurricanes. Mr Degen's fun depictions of such serious things as an electric

motor make understanding such grown-up concepts much easier for young minds

than a simple line drawing would ever accomplish.

The latest unit of study for Ms Frizzle and her students concerns electricity.

Being released this month is The Magic School Bus and The Electric Field Trip

, the eighth Magic School Bus adventure by the Cole-Degen team.

It is raining outside, but the air inside Ms Frizzle's classroom, as always,

is charged with excitement. The students (and readers) are introduced to a

red-headed girl who cartwheels her way into the classroom. This is Dottie, Ms

Frizzle's niece. She may not have the eccentric wardrobe of "The Friz," but

she has the same red hair and enthusiasm for learning her famous aunt.

Dottie sits in with Ms Frizzle's students, and when the rain turns into a

storm that knocks out the school's electricity, the precocious young girl

comes up with a bright idea: after finding out what happened to the building's

power supply, how about a trip to the town's power plant?

Thus begins the latest adventure in the decade-plus old series, created by

Newtown residents Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. The international phenomenon

that has become The Magic School Bus continues with an adventure that is as

bright and thought-generating as its eight predecessors.

The books in the Magic School Bus series always contain an interesting amount

of information. There are the stories that are each book's story line; the

notes and reports written by each of the students in Ms Frizzle's class; the

background blurbs of dialogue between Ms Frizzle, her students, and the guests

introduced in each book; and even some pokes of fun at Newtown sites.

The Electric Field Trip follows this tradition, combining fact with fiction,

and always being careful to include careful pointers for the young readers who

need to understand that electricity is something that can be very interesting,

but also very dangerous. On a lighter side, be sure to take a look at the

staff of Jo's Diner, the next stop after the group travels to the town's power

plant and then the library.

As with all Magic School Bus books, the closing page in The Electric Field

Trip gives a clue concerning where Ms Frizzle and her students will be going

on their next adventure. Hmmm, let's see...

Mr Quiggin the librarian is standing next to a small book shelf on top of

which sits a statue of a sphinx, he is wearing a snappy tie with a pharaoh on

it, and he is holding a book in his left hand titled Ancient Egypt . Looks

like some readers might need to get their passports ready for the next field

trip...

Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen will be at The Book Review's new store (in

Southbury Green, 775 Main Street South in Southbury), on Saturday, October 25,

from 1 to 2:30 pm, to meet their fans and sign copies of their books.