“Magic School Bus” author Joanna Cole has died at 75, according to Scholastic, her publisher.
Cole, who lived in Sioux City, Iowa, died July 12 of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Scholastic said.
The idea for “The Magic School Bus” — a hugely popular children’s book series that mixed science with humor and led to an animated TV series starring Lily Tomlin and a Netflix series — came in the mid-1980s. Scholastic senior editorial director Craig Walker was getting requests from teachers for books about science and thought mixing storytelling and science might catch on. He brought in Cole, whose humorous work such as the children’s book “Cockroaches” he’d admired, and illustrator Bruce Degen.
With science teacher Ms. Frizzle — based on a fifth-grade teacher Cole had — leading her students on journeys that explored everything from the solar system to the underwater world, “Magic School Bus” books have sold tens of millions of copies.
Plans for a live-action movie, with Elizabeth Banks as Ms. Frizzle, were announced last month.
Cole and Degen recently completed “The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution,” due next spring.
A lifelong fan of science, Cole was a Newark, New Jersey, native and City College of New York graduate who was a children’s librarian and magazine editor before “The Magic School Bus.”
