Each The Magic School Bus book begins with in-depth research. Cole does extensive reading, visits museums, and talks with experts. Once she's collected enough information, the author synthesizes the facts into a dummy book with sketch ideas and text for the story, speech balloons, and school reports "written" by Ms. Frizzle's students. Cole also writes the jokes found in every book. Sometimes, a page in the dummy will have a layer of jokes, all on different colored Post-it™ notes. "Eventually when I go see my editor, if he doesn't laugh at the joke on top, I say, 'Let's see what else there is, and we peel them away until we find one that he laughs at," says Cole.
Once Cole has finished her dummy and it has been reviewed by a specialist, it's time for Degen to work on the illustrations. "I take out the dummy Joanna has prepared, I look at all the research books, I look at all the notes, and then I have a cup of coffee," jokes Degen. Next, Degen prepares series of sketches showing how every page of the book will look. The collaborative process really takes off when Degen meets Cole to discuss the sketches. They talk about the story line and decide whether the art works with the action and science in the story, all the while playing off of each other's imagination.
Degen's favorite part of illustrating The Magic School Bus books is making bold fashion statements with Ms. Frizzle's weird outfits. Fans have come to enjoy the wacky dresses, shoes, and accessories, and they especially look forward to seeing Ms. Frizzle's outfit near the end of the book — it usually gives a clue to the next Magic School Bus adventure! Degen is convinced that a line of Ms. Frizzle clothing could be very popular, "especially the shoes." Degen also loves drawing Ms. Frizzle's students. They are all based on children who lived in his old neighborhood in New York, "although they don't know it."
Joanna Cole finds it a challenge to convey accurate science information and tell a humorous story kids will enjoy. When asked why she wrote The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks, Cole explained "I wanted to make it fun. I wanted the kids to be going someplace they wouldn't normally want to go, and I wanted Ms. Frizzle to be as enthusiastic as any science enthusiast can be." Cole and Degen also want the science information to be new as well as accurate. For example in The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor, they were able to include little-known information about the deep ocean floor.
In their latest Magic School Bus adventure Ms. Frizzle and her class transform themselves into bees to examine life in the hive. And what's on the horizon after that? With all the ideas they have for future stories, Bruce Degen predicts that he and Joanna will be "in rocking chairs and very old" when they write the last Magic School Bus book.
About the Author
Joanna Cole loved science as a child. "I always enjoyed explaining things and writing reports for school. I had a teacher who was a little like Ms. Frizzle. She loved her subject. Every week she had a child do an experiment in front of the room and I wanted to be that child every week," she recalls. It's no surprise that Cole's favorite book as a child was Bugs, Insects, and Such.
Ms. Cole has worked as an elementary school teacher, a librarian, and a children's book editor. Combining her knowledge of children's literature with her love of science, she decided to write children's books. Her first book was Cockroaches, which she wrote because there had never been a book written about the insect before. "I had ample time to study the creature in my low-budget New York apartment!" Since then she has written more than 90 nonfiction and fiction books for children, and she is the winner of the 1991 Washington Post /Children's Book Guild Nonfiction award for the body of her work, which also includes the ALA Notable Children's Book How You Were Born, Bony-lets; Cars and How They Go; and with Stephanie Calmenson, The Gator Girls series. Despite the hard work Ms. Cole insists that writing "is the greatest fun in the world." And The Magic School Bus books in particular provide the opportunity for Ms. Cole to combine the two things she loves most: science and humor.
About the Illustrator
Bruce Degen has loved art ever since he was a child growing up in Brooklyn, New York. "In sixth grade I had a wonderful teacher who would let me stand in the back of the room and paint all the time," Degen remembers. "Once I didn't even have to take a spelling test." When he wasn't drawing and painting, Mr. Degen loved to read books about bears, fantasy and science fiction.
Mr. Degen has written and illustrated several books among them Jamberry and Sailaway Home, and he has illustrated Nancy White Carlstrom's Jesse Bear books and Jane Yolen's Commander Toad series, in addition to The Magic School Bus books. "The nice thing about books is that they go out into the world. When a kid, parent, or teacher tells you how much he or she likes your book, you realize that you've given something that has become part of someone else's life," Degen says.
