
Joanna 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.

The First Creche
1989

101 Jump-rope Rhymes
1989

1984

A Question-and-Answer Book for Kids
2009

1983

Reading Fun for Just-beginners
1996

1989

1989

2003

1983

1986

1990

1987

2007

kids books ages 3-5
1996

1983

1981

1988

1981

1995

1984

1986

1997

1997

1994

1989

1989

1990

A Book about Space Rocks
1996

1990

1985

1987

1989

Imperial China
2005

Ancient Egypt
2001

Medieval Castle
2002

2000

2006

2005

1995

1973

1984

1987

A Creative Autobiography
1996

1992

1992

1973

1988

The Beginning Reader's Treasury
1990

1995