By: Eva Moore
Illustrated by: John Speirs
My students love The Magic School Bus. Sometimes, on a rainy day and there's no outdoor recess, we'll watch a MSB video. I came across this informational chapter book based on the MSB series. It is not written by the original author of MSB, Joanna Cole. The characters are all the same, especially the lovable Ms. Frizzle. This is the third book in the informational series.
The students in The Friz's class embark on a magical field trip to learn about whales. What I think kids will like is that even though there are facts about whales, with the text written like it's from a notebook or textbook, there is still a storyline. The characters are involved. There is an adventure. There is dialogue.
As I just mentioned, some of the text looks like it is from a textbook. The author changed the font and framed the text to make it noticeable to students that this is different from the rest of the story. Also, while the students in Ms. Friz's class are learning during their field trip, some of the students take notes. The font is changed again (different from the textbook font) and this text looks like it's written in a piece of notebook paper.
There are many things happening during the story, but I do not believe it's too much for students to keep up with. I have not yet read a chapter book from this series to my class and am anxious to because I would like to have their opinions and responses to this type of text. If you have a class that loves MSB, one of these chapter books would be beneficial because they will learn something and be engaged at the same time. One complaint I did have with this book is that it doesn't list the other books in the series. I would think there are more since this is the third book.
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