Buzz
Who wouldn’t love a teacher like Ms. Frizzle? Created by children’s author Joanna Cole—who passed away on July 12, 2020, at the age of 75—and illustrator Bruce Degen, Ms. Frizzle and her magical bus whisked children (and the young at heart) away into the amazing world of science. Relive the fun with these interesting facts about The Magic School Bus.
1. The idea for The Magic School Bus came from an editor’s passion for field trips.
By the 1980s, educational children’s literature had evolved significantly. Creative minds like Dr. Seuss and Beverly Cleary had already published engaging books that kids were excited to read.
Despite the progress, some subjects still lacked engaging material. Stories like Ramona Quimby, Age 8 were useful for English classes, but science teachers still struggled to find captivating reads for their students. This gap led educators to urge publishers to provide more science-focused books.
“In the 1980s, during the peak of the picture book boom, we were receiving constant requests from teachers wanting more science books in picture book form,” Craig Walker, the late former vice president of Scholastic, Inc., recalled in an interview with Publisher’s Weekly in 2006. “So, we had this breakthrough idea of embedding curriculum science within a story.”
One day, inspiration hit when Walker reflected on the school trips he had loved as a child. “... I thought about creating books where kids go on field trips to places they could never visit: through a water system, to the ocean’s depths, or inside the Earth.”
2. The iconic teacher of The Magic School Bus, Ms. Frizzle, is actually a blend of several real-life figures.
To bring his vision to life, Walker enlisted quirky illustrator Bruce Degen and science humorist Joanna Cole. Their debut book, The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks, was published in 1986. It quickly captured the hearts of readers everywhere, thanks in part to its fiery-haired lead character.
Walker based Ms. Frizzle on a beloved, quirky second-grade teacher from his own childhood. Both Degen and Cole have mentioned that their own childhood teachers influenced some of Ms. Frizzle’s distinctive traits. “Ms. Frizzle is inspired by my junior high science teacher, who was always ahead of us,” Cole explained in a 2007 interview with TeachingBooks.net. “She didn’t stop to make sure we understood everything. She just kept going. And I admired her for that.”
The name ‘Frizzle’ was also a blend of frizz and drizzle, a creation of Cole’s during a rainy day.
3. Joanna Cole put off writing the first Magic School Bus book for a while.
The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks presented a tricky balance. Cole was well aware that the story needed to be both entertaining and educational. She also had the challenge of simplifying complex ideas so they were accessible to kids—without losing their interest. “I was really anxious about it because I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off—merging all these elements,” Cole admitted. “So, I started cleaning out my closets, doing things I normally wouldn’t do. And then one day, I told myself, ‘You have to write today. You have to sit down.’ And so I did.”
From the very first line, Cole captured the tone she aimed for. “I knew I had a teacher, and I knew I had a class, and I knew they were going to take these wild school trips, but I wasn’t sure what the teacher would be like. So, I wrote this: ‘Our class really has bad luck. This year, we got Ms. Frizzle, the strangest teacher in school. We don’t mind her strange dresses or her strange shoes. It’s the way she acts that really gets us.’” These words set the stage for Ms. Frizzle’s character and the adventure that was about to unfold.
4. While creating the students for The Magic School Bus, Bruce Degen used photos from his kids' school picture days.
Degen would go through old elementary school class photos, picking out kids whose outfits and hairstyles stood out to him. He would then transform them into caricatures. The illustrator believes that many of these children “are in the class and … don’t know it.” However, at least one was informed about it.
The shy and bespectacled Arnold was actually inspired by a close friend of Degen’s son. “I didn’t tell him until he was 16,” Degen confessed. The reaction wasn’t quite what he had hoped. “He said, ‘I don’t look like Arnold!’ I replied, ‘Well, that day, you were wearing that white and yellow striped polo shirt. And your blondish, curly hair—that was you. You were Arnold.’”
5. Liz, the beloved pet in The Magic School Bus series, is a Jackson’s chameleon.
This three-horned creature looks strikingly similar to a curly-tailed Triceratops. Native to eastern Africa, it now also inhabits the Hawaiian islands, due to careless pet owners. It was Cole who initially came up with the idea of giving Ms. Frizzle a lizard companion. Degen chose this particular species because he thought it was the oddest-looking one he had ever seen.
6. Little Richard performed the theme song for the Magic School Bus TV series.
Debuting in 1994, the PBS show ran for four seasons and 52 episodes. The energetic theme was written by lyricist Peter Lurye and performed by rock-and-roll legend Little Richard, famously known for his 1955 hit “Tutti Frutti.”
7. Lily Tomlin earned a Daytime Emmy Award for voicing Ms. Frizzle in the Magic School Bus animated series.
Lily Tomlin took on the role of Ms. Frizzle in 1994, but she revealed that some children were skeptical. “[The kids] didn’t believe I’m Ms. Frizzle, so Ms. Frizzle would say something, and then they’d quickly turn to me and ask, ‘You say it!’ I actually had to audition for the part,” Tomlin explained in a 2014 interview. At the 1995 Daytime Emmy Awards, she won the Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program award.
8. Ms. Frizzle addressed the issue of climate change in The Magic School Bus series.
The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge, released in 2010, presented the science of climate change in a way that children could easily understand, which caused some controversy with parents. Cole believed the book was both timely and essential. “Kids need to know about [global warming], talk about it, and discuss it with their elders,” she asserted. “They can have a real impact because it’s their world that’s changing.”
9. Creating a new Magic School Bus book took a whole year.
Cole would usually spend six months researching the subject of each new book. Then, she’d dedicate another six months to crafting the book itself, with Degen working on the illustrations during the same period.
10. Books in the Magic School Bus series that aren’t centered on science have a different artistic style.
Eventually, Ms. Frizzle explored social studies topics. In these books, Frizzle goes on vacation, leaving her students and bus behind. To distinguish them from the science-focused stories, Degen opted for a richer, darker paint called gouache instead of his usual watercolor technique.
11. NASDAQ marked the 25th anniversary of The Magic School Bus in a special way.
To celebrate a quarter of a century of magical journeys, an actress dressed as Ms. Frizzle rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square on October 17, 2011.
12. A Magic School Bus reboot debuted in 2017.
Lily Tomlin reprised her role as Ms. Frizzle in The Magic School Bus Rides Again. The reboot introduced Fiona Frizzle (voiced by Kate McKinnon), the younger sister of Ms. Frizzle (now Professor Fizzle), who inherits the keys to the famous bus. It first hit Netflix in 2017, but was canceled after only two seasons, despite three 45-minute specials airing in 2020.
The show, which featured a theme song by Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton, was initially planned as a computer-animated series titled The Magic School Bus 360° and had been slated for a 2016 release.
This article was first published in 2015 and has been revised in 2023.
