Posted on by TracyC

The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System

MSBSolarSystem

The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole, 1990.

Ms. Frizzle’s class is planning a trip to the planetarium as part of their lesson about the solar system, but of course, their magic school bus has other plans.  When they get to the planetarium and find out that it’s closed for repairs, the bus sprouts rockets and takes them on a real trip through the solar system.

MSBSolarSystemBlastOff

This time, the class is accompanied by Arnold’s visiting cousin, Janet.  Janet is a show-off who brags constantly about everything, making up stories when she has nothing real to brag about.  She gets on the other kids’ nerves, but when they’re separated from Ms. Frizzle because she got out of the bus to fix a taillight broken in the asteroid field, Janet takes charge, using Ms. Frizzle’s lesson plan to continue the field trip, eventually figuring out how to turn the bus around to rescue her and get back to Earth.

MSBSolarSystemMoon

All through the book, there are facts about the sun, the moon, and the planets in the solar system from the students’ reports.  Each time they stop at a planet, a scale shows the difference between Arnold’s weight on Earth and his weight on each planet.  The book considers Pluto to be a planet because it was written before its planet status was reconsidered.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

MSBSolarSystemRescue

Posted on by TracyC

The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body

MSBHumanBody

The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole, 1989.

Ms. Frizzle’s class is now studying the human body, and they are going to take a trip to the science museum to see an exhibit about how bodies digest food for energy.  Of course, this is not going to be a normal field trip, but it is weirder than anything the students could have expected.

MSBHumanBodyFilm

After the class stops at a park for lunch, Arnold is accidentally left behind, and before they can go back for him, the bus shrinks small and is accidentally swallowed by Arnold.

MSBHumanBodySwallow

While his classmates take a trip through Arnold’s body, Arnold panics at being left behind and makes his way back to school by himself, accompanied by a sympathetic bird, not knowing where the rest of the class went.

MSBHumanBodySneeze

The book ends with a section of true and false questions that point out the impossibilities of the class’s field trip inside a student’s body, but also points out that the information about the human body itself is true.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth

The Magic School Bus

MSBEarth

The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth by Joanna Cole, 1987.

Ms. Frizzle’s class has a new student, Phoebe, who is about to discover that Ms. Frizzle is no ordinary teacher and that her class trips are nothing like any other field trip.  Ms. Frizzle’s class is studying the earth and rocks, and she assigns the students homework to find a rock and bring it to class.

MSBEarthHomework

However, even though it sounds like an easy assignment, only one person actually brought a real rock to class.  The others either didn’t bring anything or brought in pieces of old Styrofoam, bits of broken glass, or chips of concrete from the sidewalk.  With only one real rock for the class’s rock collection, Ms. Frizzle decides that the class should to on a trip to collect more.

MSBEarthFieldTrip

She takes the class on a field trip to a real field, but they’re not just going to collect rocks that they find lying on the ground.  The bus changes itself into a steam shovel, and Ms. Frizzle passes out shovels and jackhammers to the students.  They start digging down into the earth, uncovering new layers of rock as Ms. Frizzle explains what types of rocks are in the layers and how they formed.

MSBEarthDigging

Before the field trip is over, the school bus, along with all the students, falls through the ground and into a massive cave.  They continue traveling all the way down through the center of the earth and out the other side, ending up on a volcano, where Ms. Frizzle calmly explains about volcanic rocks.

MSBEarthVolcano.jpg

I like the picture at the end of the book, after the kids return to school, which points out that there are things all around them that are made out of the different kinds of rocks and minerals that they learned about on their trip.  Each type of rock is also shown in the class’s rock collection along with notes about the type of each rock and how it can be used.

MSBEarthReturn

The book ends with a mock phone conversation between a reader and the author and artist about the impossible things that happen in the book but noting the factual information contained in the story.  The book was featured on Reading Rainbow.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.

MSBEarthRockCollection