Original book series

This article is about the books by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. For the television adaptations, see [[The Magic School Bus and The Magic School Bus Rides Again]].

For the vehicle, see The Magic School Bus (vehicle).

For the film adaptation, see The Magic School Bus (film).

The Magic School Bus is the book series which started the entire franchise. There are thirteen books in this series, all of which were written by the late Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen, respectively, used to teach varying science subjects to their young readers. The first book, At the Waterworks, was published in the US on July 24, 1986.

The book series is sometimes referred to as the original series, original series of books, classic series, main series, or just the original books.

Overview

The books star the eccentric elementary school teacher named Valerie Felicity Frizzle and her class, which holds a standard amount of 18-20 students in the books while reduced to 8 in the television adaptations (along with the TV tie-in books and video game series). The main characters in the other adaptations (TV series, TV books, and video game series) are Tim, Ralphie, Arnold, Dorothy Ann, Carlos, Phoebe, Keesha, and Wanda. In each story, she takes them on "highly unusual" (to quote Arnold) field trips to various locations including inside the human body, beneath the Earth's crust, the far reaches of outer space, and other locations that would normally be impossible to visit. These trips are courtesy of her special shape-shifting school bus which they use to reach those locations.

Each book always ends with a page that separates fact from fiction, as they always use fantasy to teach real world scientific concepts. This served as the inspiration for the Producer Says segments in the television saga, in which the producer (voiced by Malcolm-Jamal Warner) or the Friz herself receives phone calls from kids complaining about how some things that happened on the show couldn't do so in real life.

Books

• The Magic School Bus At the Waterworks (1986)
• The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth (1987)
• The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body (1989)
• The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System (1990)
• The Magic School Bus On the Ocean Floor (1992)
• The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs (1994)
• The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane (1995)
• The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive (1996)
• The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip (1997)
• The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses (1999)
• The Magic School Bus and the Science Fair Expedition (2006)
• The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge (2010)
• The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution (2021)

Trivia

• The sixth book, In the Time of the Dinosaurs introduced Keesha and Carlos to the public just days before the television series premiered.
• The books At the Waterworks (first book in the classic series), Inside the Earth, Inside the Human Body, On the Ocean Floor, and In the Time of the Dinosaurs are the five books to appear in the book promo in all four seasons.
  • The one classic series book --from 1986-1994-- Lost in the Solar System was the only book (from the original 6 books) to appear on the promo in the first two seasons.