The Magic School Bus

The Magic School Bus is an edutainment multimedia franchise that consists of a book series, a TV series, and several video games among other things. Each of the stories within the franchise centers on the antics of a fictional elementary school teacher, Ms. Valerie Frizzle, and her class, who board an anthropomorphic Type A school bus, which takes them on field trips to impossible locations, such as the solar system, clouds, the past, and the human body. The class pet Liz, a lizard, accompanies the class on their field trips.

History

The first media in which this franchise was developed was the Magic School Bus book series. Craig Walker, vice-president and senior editorial director at Scholastic Co., stated that the concept began with the idea of combining science with fictional stories, and Joanna Cole (who had written both science and humor before) and Bruce Degen were then approached with creating such a series. Walker also states that his own memories of school field trips and of a teacher he had once, served as further inspiration. The first book "At the Waterworks" was written in 1985 and published the following year. The books are written in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed student in "the Friz's" class. Cole and Degen started a new series called Ms. Frizzle's Adventures in 2001, which teaches social studies, eventually producing three books in that series. Microsoft Home started publishing Magic School Bus software in 1994.