The original The Magic School Bus series of books, written for children ages five through eight, remains a delightful way to introduce children to a wide variety of science topics. The series has nine titles that all begin The Magic School Bus and conclude with the titles:
- Inside the Earth
- Inside the Human Body
- Lost in the Solar System
- In the Time of Dinosaurs
- At the Waterworks
- Inside a Hurricane
- Inside a Beehive
- And the Electric Field Trip
- Explores the Senses
Ms. Frizzle leads the expedition in each book as she takes her class on field trips via a magic bus that transports children into extraordinary, imaginary adventures. For example in At the Waterworks, after the bus goes through a dark tunnel, it emerges newly decorated with octopi and fish. And all of the children, along with Ms. Frizzle, are now wearing scuba gear. The bus then rises, and the children exit the bus among the clouds. The children shrink till they fit inside raindrops, and they travel down to earth, into a stream, and through a city's water purification system. In the end, they splash out of the water system into the bathroom at their school, returning to their normal sizes. During their adventure, they learn about the water cycle as well as the water purification system.
There are also Magic School Bus videos, chapter books, and non-fiction companion books to the original series. But I still love the original books because of the imaginative stories written by Joanna Cole and the fantastic artwork by Bruce Degen. These books are especially fun for read-aloud sessions when parents and children can enjoy them together.
