UNITED STATES— Creator of ‘The Magic School Bus’, Joanna Cole, passed away Sunday, July 12.
Cole, who was 75 at the time of her passing, wrote more than 250 children’s books and sold close to 100 million copies of them. She was best known for her creation of ‘The Magic School Bus’.
‘The Magic School Bus’ started off as a book series in 1986, which Cole created with illustrator Bruce Degen, and ran for 18 years. The story was also a T.V. series and has even been recently announced to be in development for a live-action film which will star actress Elizabeth Banks. The series showed school children going on fun-filled field trips with their science teacher in order to solve questions the kids had on the topic of each episode.
Cole had the ability to blend science and fun for children through her animated series.
“In my science books, including The Magic School Bus books, I write about ideas, rather than just the facts,” Cole once said. “I try to ask a question, such as how do scientists guess what dinosaurs were like? Then I try to answer the question as I write the book.”
Cole was born on August 11, 1944 in Newark, NJ.. She passed away of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Sioux City, Iowa. She is survived by her husband, Phil; her daughter, Rachel; her daughters husband, John Helms; her grandchildren, Annabelle and William; and her sister, Virginia McBride.
