The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds: A Book About How Living Things Grow

The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds: A Book About How Living Things Grow by Joanna Cole, illustrated by John Speirs and Bruce Degen

The magic school bus goes small to hang with the bugs and nectar as plants are pollinated and seeds produced. As a twist, they go back to Phoebe's old school and even see her old teacher. (Thus when she talks about her old school, they respond that they are there.) 

The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs

The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole, illustrated by Bruce Degen

The original Magic School Bus books have a nice charm to them. The pages have a story that can be read along with a large number of additional written and illustrated details. In this one, the class goes to visit a dinosaur dig site. Then they travel back in time. They accidentally go too far, and end up seeing what the site looked like in various points in time. Finally they see where the maiasaura eggs are at the "end" of the dinosaur times. When they return to the present they are able to tell the excavation crew where to look. Then they return to school for parent day. 

The Magic School Bus Makes A Rainbow

The Magic School Bus Makes A Rainbow: A Book About Color by George Bloom (Adapter), Jocelyn Stevenson (Adapter), Carolyn Bracken (Illustrator)

They have a new pinball machine in the classroom. It is a special "light" pinball machine. They try to shoot light through a prism and get it to refract into various eyes matching certain colors. They go in the schoolbus and use different objects and mirrors to reflect the light into the eyes. One kid stays behind and works to distract the principal who came to visit. He does it just long enough for the kids to win and get out. By winning, Ms. Frizzle gets to keep the pinball machine. Otherwise, we learn the principal would have had it. The explores how colors work, but feels less in depth than other books in the series.

The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten: A Book About Food Chains

The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten: A Book About Food Chains by Joanna Cole, Patricia Relf and Bruce Degen

This is a TV show spin off book. Kids were supposed to come to school with beach items that were "connected". Two kids forget, and only have the pond scum one stepped on and a tuna sandwich the other had for lunch. The school bus goes into the ocean and shrinks to the size of phytoplankton and gradually works its way up to tuna. They learn of the ocean food chain and understand how things are related. It is ok, but lacks the "side notes" of the real books.

The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System

The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole (Author), Bruce Degen (Author)

This is one of the "real" magic school bus books by the original authors. It includes a lot more "side notes" than the spin off books. In this one, they go in the school bus to visit the planets of the solar system. At this time, Pluto was still a planet. It felt a little odd that they just let their teacher stay stranded in space. I guess it is fiction.

The Magic School Bus Out Of This World: A Book About Space Rocks

The Magic School Bus Out Of This World: A Book About Space Rocks series by Joanna Cole (Author), Bruce Degen (Illustrator) by Jackie Posner and illustrated by Robbin Cuddly. TV script written by Libby Hinson and George Arthur Bloom

This is a TV show spin off. They hear an asteroid is about to crash into the school. They go to see it. In the process the melt a comet. Then they make their bus huge to get the asteroid into orbit, then shrink it to launch the asteroid to the sun. This went heavy on the fiction and low on the science.

The Magic School Bus and the Butterfly Bunch

The Magic School Bus and the Butterfly Bunch by Kristin Earhart (Author), Carolyn Bracken (Illustrator)

The "clone" Magic School Bus books are not as good. They become butterflies and explore parts of being butterflies. It is good that it is shorter, because it is not very engaging.