The Magic School Bus Ups and Downs by Joanna Cole

Joanna Cole is the creator of Ms. Frizzle – and in one way, the two are alike. Both women share a passion for science, learning, and explaining new things. But Joanna Cole doesn’t wear ladybug earrings, nor ketchup bottles on her shoes. She is an avid reader and researcher who writes about science in a way that is both understandable and entertaining for her young audience. The Magic School Bus was the perfect opportunity to combine two of her favorite things: science and humor.

Before The Magic School Bus, Joanna Cole worked as an elementary school teacher, librarian, children’s book editor, and writer. She was already the successful author of nearly 100 children’s books. Then one day, she sat down to a new assignment and wrote the following words, “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.”

Bruce Degen
After studying art in high school, college, and graduate school, the time came for Bruce Degen to decide how he would earn a living as an artist. “You don’t see many people walking around a gallery and chuckling,” he says. “And I realized that I wanted a chuckle. You can do a painting, and it might end up being on somebody’s wall, but if you do a book, it goes out to the world.”

It is Bruce Degen’s clever hand that brings The Magic School Bus to visual life. He stylized Ms. Frizzle’s wacky shoes and outrageous dresses. He formatted the books horizontally to include the multiple layers of Cole’s text. Yet long before the blockbuster series, Degen had already illustrated popular books such as Jamberry, Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, and Commander Toad in Space. Degen’s own sense of humor and subtle jokes add a playful quality to all of the books he illustrates.