The Magic School Bus http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Magic-School-Bus-Joanna-Cole-Bruce-Degen-Illustrated-by/9780590446891

In the Time of the Dinosaurs

By Joanna Cole, Bruce Degen (Illustrated by)

About the Author

Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen, the author and illustrator of the Magic School Bus books, have collaborated for twenty years, bringing humor and true kidlike curiosity to science and learning. Booklist heralded Ms. Frizzle as "the wackiest, wisest teacher in picture books." Two MSB titles have been named School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, and they have won countless state book awards, from New York to Nebraska.

Reviews

Gr 1-3-Preparations for Visitors Day in Room 101 come to a sudden halt when Ms. Frizzle receives an invitation to a dinosaur dig. With a twist of a dial, the Magic School Bus becomes a time machine hurtling through prehistory, stopping at various points in the Mesozoic Era so the class can observe flora and fauna, shoot a video, make smart remarks, and generate the usual blizzard of written reports. Readers may be confused to read on one page that reptiles are cold-blooded and that dinosaurs were a kind of a reptile, and on the next that some may have been warm-blooded; otherwise, Cole mixes up-to-date facts and general statements with virtuoso skill, stirring in plenty of jokes, small subplots, and flights of fancy. One gruesome scene aside, Degen's full-color illustrations enhance both the humor and the information, featuring maps, charts, actual-size drawings of fossil teeth, plenty of dinos in action, and Ms. Frizzle's famous, ever-startling wardrobe. Climb aboard-there's never a dull moment with ``the Friz'' at the wheel!-John Peters, New York Public Library

Readers eager to hop aboard Ms. Frizzle's bus for another junket will not be disappointed by this latest expedition. It's visitor's day at school and the students have turned the classroom into Dinosaur Land, but the impulsive teacher nevertheless announces a dinosaur dig, and the class piles onto the magic school bus. At the site, paleontologists have uncovered the bones of some Maiasaura dinosaurs, but are disappointed that they haven't found any nests. With a characteristic gleam in her eye, Ms. Frizzle asks, ``Want to look for some Maiasaura nests, kids?''--and the bus becomes a time machine transporting the class back millions of years. They make stops in the Late Triassic Period, the Late Jurassic Period, the Late Cretaceous Period and, finally, the Cretaceous Period, where they discover a Maiasaura nesting ground. In exploring each era, the students examine various dinosaur species' habits and habitats, diets and physical characteristics. As always, Cole's text and Degen's art are fastidiously researched and exuberantly presented on creatively crowded pages. Ages 6-9. (Sept.)