The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane

Another wild adventure with Ms. Frizzle and her class. In this book, they are studying weather. Naturally, Ms. Frizzles takes them on a field trip. However, along the way to the weather station, they are distracted by a hurricane. Rather than fleeing from it, the Frizz takes her class into the heart of the storm, so they can study the details of such extreme weather up close. Although they all fall out of the hot-air balloon (the school bus's first transformation), they are scooped up by an airplane (the bus's second transformation), and move through the several layers of the hurricane. Through the eye wall, into the eye of storm, then back out of it to crash land when the bus runs out of gas. Fortunately, a tornado picks them up out of show more the storm surge that would have flooded them, and gently sets them down by a gas station. They finally make it to the weather station, with enough information that they can teach the weather forecasters a thing or two about hurricanes.

While every magic school bus adventure is exciting, this may be the most high adrenaline trip of them all. The bus transforms into a hot air balloon and a plane, the children fall through the air in a hurricane, and they hitch a ride on a tornado. In the midst of this insanity, the students learn all about the formation of hurricanes and the weather effects associated with them. I learned more about hurricanes than I ever knew before. Despite the criticism of some readers (who find the blending of fantasy and scientific fact detracts from the learning), I love this series. The books liven up the instruction of complex scientific topics, and are just fun adventure stories to read. As long as you take the time to discuss the difference between fantasy and reality with young readers, I see no down side to this classic series of children's nonfiction. show less

I used to love this series as a kid. The authors ability to combine the information while also making it fun and a good read. The book challenges the students to think about academia while also improving their reading skills. I also like how busy the pages are. There is plain text, dialogue, and sticky notes on the side of the page that go into great detail about the subject. The pictures in the book are also in depth.There are quite a bit of diagrams and pictures along with the original pictures that tell the story line. The last thing that I like about this book is the plot line development. The book is not just informational, there is a story line with the kids and Mrs.Frizzle.

I liked this book because of the informational aspect, but I found the illustrations to be very overwhelming. I wasn't able to really read them as a child because there was too much going on on each page for me to keep track of the story. I preferred the television show. Trying to read this book was difficult for me. However, the authors include a lot of important information about hurricanes in the plot itself, so I learned some things about hurricanes. I think I would really have to take a good chunk of time to organize all of the information in my head for me to really appreciate this book. I also like at the end that the authors include "The Magic School Bus Mail Bag", which is where pretend people send letters in that essentially show more call out the book on things that could never happen. For example the Coast Guard wrote a post card to the editors that read, "A fishing boat probably would not survive if it were out in a very strong hurricane", because a fishing boat rescued Arnold after he fell from the hot air balloon. The editors also include a note to all readers: "Some of the things that happen in this book are make-believe. But of course, all the science is real! Joanna & Bruce". I think this was a nice touch to make sure readers know that they should not take the entire book as something that could really happen. They need to recognize that safety is important. The big idea of this book is to be open to adventures because you never know what you will learn, and this is conveyed through the reluctance of many students about going on another field trip, but they end up learning a lot and are able to have intelligent conversations with the weather people they meet at the end of the day. show less

Okay, Ms. Frizzle gets an automatic 5 stars. I have always loved the Magic School Bus series, finding them extremely educational. Along with learning via the text, the illustrator has put side information into the text. It may be a bit wordy and busy with all that's going on, but I love it. I learned a lot from it.

Summary: This book is about a woman named Ms. Frizzle and the her school class. They take a field trip on their magic school bus and the bus turns into a hot air balloon. They learn about how hot air ballon work and while they are floating through the air they realize that a hurricane was brewing. The magic school bus turns into an airplane and they fly away to the safety of their classroom.

Personal reaction: I think that this is a very cute book. The Magic School Bus tv show was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. I didn't know that they had the book until recently. I read it to my children and they loved it too.

Extension ideas:
1. in the classroom, the teacher could teach the children about how hot air balloons work. They show more could also color pictures of hot air balloons.
2. The teacher could also teach the kids about severe weather patterns, such as hurricanes and tornadoes. I think that learning about tornadoes is especially important in places like Oklahoma since there are so many tornadoes here. show less

This is a book that mixes a non-fiction topic into a narrative format. Specifically, the book contains information about hurricanes that is in the perfect format for building background knowledge in children. As a research book, I'm not sure that the book is all that helpful. Simply, the information is not organized in a way that makes it easily accessible. At the same time, I think children would be engaged in the story, pictures, and format of the book, which makes it good for building background knowledge. This book is part of a large series of Magic School Bus books on a wide variety of topics.

The Magic School Bus is an engaging read for students who love science as well and reading. I like the Magic School Bus because it takes concepts that may be interesting at first but confusing to learn about, like hurricanes, and creates a piece that is engaging and informational. The students are led by Ms. Frizzle on field trips that are out of the ordinary and completely immersive. I would include this book in my classroom library for grades 2-4. Children of all ages can enjoy this story but it may be too complicated for younger ages to truly understand. Older grades such a 5 may be "too old" for the storybook format.