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Ms. Frizzle's Adventures (MSB)
Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Imperial China
There's no denying the Frizzle magic, and the zany teacher is at her best as she journeys to ancient China. Full of historical and cultural facts, the book is a learning adventure - and a lot of fun.
Is it magic? Ms. Frizzle, Wanda, and Arnold simply duck under the dragon at the local Chinese New Year's parade, and they are mysteriously whisked back in time to ancient China! They arrive in a village where the farmers are in trouble. The Friz and friends vow to go to the capital to get the emperor's help. As they journey, they learn how silk is made, travel on the Grand Canal, and see the Great Wall under construction, but will they fulfill their mission to help the farmers?
Cole and Degen relay a bounty of facts with charm and humor as they bring the majesty of imperial China to life.
Is it magic? Ms. Frizzle, Wanda, and Arnold simply duck under the dragon at the local Chinese New Year's parade, and they are mysteriously whisked back in time to ancient China! They arrive in a village where the farmers are in trouble. The Friz and friends vow to go to the capital to get the emperor's help. As they journey, they learn how silk is made, travel on the Grand Canal, and see the Great Wall under construction, but will they fulfill their mission to help the farmers?
Cole and Degen relay a bounty of facts with charm and humor as they bring the majesty of imperial China to life.
48 pages, Hardcover
Published July 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Joanna Cole
488 books205 followersJoanna Cole, who also wrote under the pseudonym B. J. Barnet, was an author of children’s books who teaches science.
She is most famous as the author of The Magic School Bus series of children's books. Joanna Cole wrote over 250 books ranging from her first book Cockroach to her famous series Magic School Bus.
Cole was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby East Orange. She loved science as a child, and had a teacher she says was a little like Ms. Frizzle. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University before graduating from the City College of New York with a B.A. in psychology. After some graduate education courses, she spent a year as a librarian in a Brooklyn elementary school. Cole subsequently became a letters correspondent at Newsweek, and then a senior editor for Doubleday Books for Young Readers.
She is most famous as the author of The Magic School Bus series of children's books. Joanna Cole wrote over 250 books ranging from her first book Cockroach to her famous series Magic School Bus.
Cole was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby East Orange. She loved science as a child, and had a teacher she says was a little like Ms. Frizzle. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University before graduating from the City College of New York with a B.A. in psychology. After some graduate education courses, she spent a year as a librarian in a Brooklyn elementary school. Cole subsequently became a letters correspondent at Newsweek, and then a senior editor for Doubleday Books for Young Readers.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
January 18, 2015
Miss Frizzle and a sparse fraction of her students spend the afternoon in Imperial China, still making it back to present day in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Miss Frizzle’s point of view narrative is encapsulated within white boxes set aside from both the character dialogue and from the additional information presented at the bottom of the page. This three-way segregation of information complicates the tale in a way which fragments the reader’s attention. The storyline employs the somewhat unfortunate plot device of the mainly Caucasian group of outsiders helping to save the day for a non-white culture. However, this text does serve as a strong introduction to Imperial China, diagramming many elements of Chinese culture such as calligraphy, silk making, and rice harvesting, while also listing to the reader the extensive contributions of inventions that originated in Imperial China. The inclusion of an authentic Chinese poem gives readers a taste of non-Western poetry. Both the poem and subject research are listed in a front acknowledgements statement, verifying that Cole did sufficient research when constructing the text. Degen’s illustrations have evolved from the Magic School Bus series to contain less shadow graduation and appear more cartoonish. The background and artifacts described employ more detail, such as the many illustrations of the Chinese landscape, such as rice patties, marketplace, and the Great Wall of China. These illustrations are created using brush, ink, pen, and gouache. This non-fiction social studies text is recommended for children ages seven to ten. (Three and a half stars)
August 24, 2017
S has recently become quite interested in the idea of traveling to China and seeing the Great Wall. I actually don't even know how he came to know about China; he must have watched a television show featuring it, because he suddenly knows a lot of China facts. I checked this out at the library for him since one of his summer reading challenges was to read a book about another country and I thought he'd get a kick out of this since he likes both the Magic School Bus and now China (apparently). I never did end up reading the entire book--there is A LOT going on with the text and the pages are all very busy--but he was interested in it and "read" it on his own a lot while we had it out of the library.
November 30, 2017
Joanna Cole does a marvelous job of taking nonfiction and turning it into a way that even a student who hates reading nonfiction would enjoy this book. Definitely would add her books to my classroom library. The pictures and comic book style are an added bonus.
January 3, 2018
I love the last page... "this book has errors and omissions!" and it proceeds to correct the liberties it took for the sake of story telling.
Also, I love the tidbits of facts at the bottom of each page that has facts about China to compliment the fictional narration of the story.
Also, I love the tidbits of facts at the bottom of each page that has facts about China to compliment the fictional narration of the story.
August 20, 2018
Such a fun book packed with so much detail. You can read straight through or you can stop and look at the action-packed pictures and read all of the insets to give you so much more information about all sorts of things, from the meanings of different colors, to how to grow rice.
October 25, 2020
A nice way to introduce China and the contributions that it has made to the world. This is an older book but I think in the current socio-political climate it is a nice book to share with children to teach them about other cultures and the positive things they have created for us.
August 19, 2020
We love the magic school bus series of books, they are very educational!
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October 14, 2020SUPER
December 21, 2015
• Summarize the book
This book is part of a series of Ms. Frizzle books that came after the Magic School Bus series. These book are written for older readers and cover more cultural and historical topics as opposed to the science that was addressed in the Magic School Bus books.
In this particular book, it is the Chinese New Year and Ms. Frizzle goes to meet her student Wanda and family for dinner in Chinatown. She happens to run into another student, Arnold on his way to kung fu. In typical Ms. Frizzle fashion, they all end up under a Chinese dragon costume in a New Year's parade and when they come out from under, they are no longer in modern USA but in Imperial China. The explore, meet the emperor see the Great Wall and learn lots of other neat facts of history along the way before they walk through a magic door and find themselves in the restaurant where they were headed for dinner, just in time.
• Identify the characteristics from the text that support the specific genre: Like the other Ms. Frizzle book I reviewed (Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body) this book is also written in layers with the narrative component being fiction and fantasy but all of the info about Imperial China being factual / informational. A good way to make informational texts palatable to children who might otherwise resist. I will add that while I was a good student throughout school, history never struck a chord with me until I was out of school completely. I think largely because I couldn't see how it connected to my experience. Wars and dates, wars and dates, wars and dates and lots of men too. When I finally began encountering text and other materials that reflected women's experiences, peoples daily lives and that emphasize culture, I became interested.
• Identify specific literary or educational concepts that could be integrated into the classroom. Cultural diversity in the U.S., creative ways to write informational text, reflecting on what makes teaching / teachers interesting.
• Provide any other suggestions that would be useful regarding literary content, reading level, and other ways in which the book might be integrated. A class could write a book like this as a group on a topic they were studying. Arty kids could draw, lots of kids could add individual factoids on the topic and the story-tellers and actors could help with the narrative components.
This book is part of a series of Ms. Frizzle books that came after the Magic School Bus series. These book are written for older readers and cover more cultural and historical topics as opposed to the science that was addressed in the Magic School Bus books.
In this particular book, it is the Chinese New Year and Ms. Frizzle goes to meet her student Wanda and family for dinner in Chinatown. She happens to run into another student, Arnold on his way to kung fu. In typical Ms. Frizzle fashion, they all end up under a Chinese dragon costume in a New Year's parade and when they come out from under, they are no longer in modern USA but in Imperial China. The explore, meet the emperor see the Great Wall and learn lots of other neat facts of history along the way before they walk through a magic door and find themselves in the restaurant where they were headed for dinner, just in time.
• Identify the characteristics from the text that support the specific genre: Like the other Ms. Frizzle book I reviewed (Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body) this book is also written in layers with the narrative component being fiction and fantasy but all of the info about Imperial China being factual / informational. A good way to make informational texts palatable to children who might otherwise resist. I will add that while I was a good student throughout school, history never struck a chord with me until I was out of school completely. I think largely because I couldn't see how it connected to my experience. Wars and dates, wars and dates, wars and dates and lots of men too. When I finally began encountering text and other materials that reflected women's experiences, peoples daily lives and that emphasize culture, I became interested.
• Identify specific literary or educational concepts that could be integrated into the classroom. Cultural diversity in the U.S., creative ways to write informational text, reflecting on what makes teaching / teachers interesting.
• Provide any other suggestions that would be useful regarding literary content, reading level, and other ways in which the book might be integrated. A class could write a book like this as a group on a topic they were studying. Arty kids could draw, lots of kids could add individual factoids on the topic and the story-tellers and actors could help with the narrative components.
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February 19, 2016What a trip that begins by joining a street parade as part of a dancing dragon! Suddenly, Ms. Frizzle and her traveling companions have been transported to ancient China to experience all that is unique about this part of the world. The author includes multiple factoids on each page that explain important aspects of Asian culture and their impact on countries around the world. They observe how silk is made and the proper technique for planting rice. The little group visits the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Ms. Frizzle and her traveling band of students make it back in time for dinner with many stories to tell of their adventure in Imperial China.
June 20, 2009
This is a good story that talks about imperial Chinese life, culture, inventions and geography. It's a typical book from the Magic School Bus series, minus the bus and most of the class. Ms. Frizzle, Arnold, Wanda and Wanda's brother Henry go on a trip to Imperial China. Though the trip is fictional, the information about China is not. It is a little easier to read aloud than some of the other Magic School Bus books, and it has lots of information, without being boring or too busy. Our girls love these books and we've read this one a couple of times.
October 26, 2010
We just found this series and I highly recommend this book, especially if you like the Magic School Bus. The book is writtten from the perspective of Ms. Frizzle and there is a continuos story line, while cool facts and history are mixed in. It is written like a comic book, with several drawings per page, and is filled with all kinds of facts for the student to learn about. The pictures are bright and colorful and perfect for an early elementary student. WE used this book as a companion to Story of the World and I hope more books are added to this series.
September 10, 2013
Like all Ms. Frizzle stories, she and her students go on an amazing adventure--this time, to Imperial China! They learn all about the customs there, the significance of certain events, colors, and objects, and the inventions that continue to influence us today. The story is simple, yet informative and entertaining. At the end, the author has inserted a section to clarify some of the unbelievable parts of the story and to confirm other parts, which helps to remind the reader that this really is a fictional tale that is dotted with facts.
March 11, 2014
I liked that the author explained about Chinatowns and modern martial arts classes and New Year celebrations while also visiting the historical China. I found the format even more annoying than the usual. And every other page the text includes the phrase, "I, Ms. Frizzle..." because jumping back and forth between perspectives really IS hard for kids and writers alike. Still, the branding got the littlest person in the house reading about the same historical period the big kids are studying, and the wording about the historical facts was pretty lucid, so I'd check this out again.
February 1, 2013
Another wonderful adventure with Ms. Frizzle. This time teaching the reader about Chinese New Year while taking them back in the past for a tour of Imperial China. What is so great about the Magic School Bus books is that you can adapt them to multiple age groups. You can do a straight read through of the text or delve deeper into the information provided in the sidebars. Our middle son especially loves the funny comments that Ms. Frizzle's students make about their crazy outtings.
January 27, 2014
Moira was ecstatic to discover this book. We've read many of the Magic School Bus books, and she is a huge Frizzle fan. It was also a hit at our party and one of the parents in attendance read it to a growing crowd of kids. It's organized much like the Magic School Bus books, but with only a couple of kids and time travel.
April 28, 2015
I am a big fan of the magic shook bus so I figured I'd like this book too and I did! I love that it includes an information yet still a fictional story for the reader. I also like the little side conversations going on in the word bubbles. I think the students could really learn a lot from this serious, especially science and history.
September 10, 2008
Who can go wrong with Ms. Frizzle when it's a book to entertain and teach at the same time. This one ic full of little facts about China's history, and teaches simple things along the way--like using chopsticks. A great one to book talk at Book Time, and hopefully it will boost a check-out or two.
July 31, 2016
I always love Ms. Frizzle, and I like that the videos of the books are true to the books. Better yet, the kids enjoy the MSB series, so it's always a good companion to whatever we're talking about in school.
May 17, 2012
Our daughter learned chopsticks best from a sidebar comic strip in this wonderful book.
February 26, 2014
Read on Chinese New Year
June 16, 2014
I picked this out myself. A very good book about China. (age 8).
December 16, 2015
Ms. Frizzle never misses an adventure or an opportunity to experience, learn, and teach and has the wardrobe to prove it. Great book!
February 15, 2016
Explore key elements of Imperial China with Ms. Frizzle and the crew. Great facts summarized in one book. Lots to remember.
April 17, 2017
Surprisingly, there are no books about the process of chinese Calligraphy that also feature an artist, but this book was a nice surprise as it included not just a brief description of the implements of ink but also a short into to the Emperor Huizong, one of the few well-know artist of Imperial China. The rest of the book is great for explaining the important contributions of China to the modern world: fireworks, paper, rice cultivation, silk, etc.
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April 5, 2019cool book
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews