On the Bus with Joanna Cole: A Creative Autobiography (Creative Sparks)

The book was very informative on the life of Joanna Cole, but it was very wordy and not very interesting for the grade level that it suggests. It is suggested for k-3 but I don't see how kindergarten classes will sit down and listen to a chapter book. I believe that this book is more for the grade level 3-5 because this book has many great facts about her life for a report. The book is also good for a teacher to read to students if she is working on an author study. The book gives a lot of background knowledge of her life. It also gives a lot of information on her ideas and how she got there. I enjoyed the book since I am older and have watched the Magic School Bus throughout school, but for younger children it would probably be very show more boring. show less

This book is about the autobiography of Joanna Cole where she talks about a number of things about her being a writer. She likes to think that she is not a scientist but a science writer. Meaning that she likes to write about science in her books in a way that her readers will understand it. She is the writer to the popular series The Magic School Bus. she was inspired to write the series by her good friend and illustrator of the books, Bruce Degen. He's the one that gave her the idea to write the book. The autobiography also entails where she gets her other inspirations from as well. This book was simple to read, talked about her thought process thoroughly when writing a book, talked about how she based her characters on old teachers show more and what turned her on to writing. This book was enjoyable to read and made you think about how you can write a book on anything in life. show less

This book was not what I was expecting. It was way more. As I began to read, I learned so much back story about Joanna Cole, from her family to when she started writing. She wrote a series called Clown Arounds, and those are the books that inspired the Magic School Bus books. Joanna had always wanted to write about science. The Magic School bus was her chance. She would research a topic she wanted to write about then it would eventually take her somewhere else in the learning world. Joanna resides in Cincinnati and is a known author, librarian and elementary teacher.

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