Joanna Cole wrote The Magic School Bus for kids — but she also made special books just for her daughter

Rachel Cole grew up surrounded by literature, science and endless creativity — and thanks to her mother, so did millions of children.

Joanna Cole, American author of The Magic School Bus children's books, died on Sunday of the lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. She was 75.

The beloved book series followed the adventures of Ms. Frizzle, an eccentric teacher who would take her students on magical and educational adventures into space, the ocean or even inside the human body.

The Scholastic books sold millions of copies and inspired a long-running animated TV series of the same name as well as a 2017 Netflix revival.

Rachel Cole spoke to As It Happens guest host Nil Köksal about her mother's impact as an author and as a mother. Here is part of their conversation. 

I understand you were about 11 years old when The Magic School Bus first came out. So I wonder what it was like growing up with a mom who was writing all of these out-of-this-world stories?

It was really wonderful. And, before she wrote The Magic School Bus, which was a huge change and changed our lives, she was always writing, my entire childhood. 

So her books were just a part of our family life. If she was writing about a topic, there would be stacks of books about that topic all over the house. 

And she would always be interjecting facts about that topic into conversations, until we said, "No, no, stop telling us about sharks. I've learned enough!"

That sounds like a pretty great way to grow up.

It was. It was a really fun and creative way to live.

It sounds like you could have collected some consulting fees, too, for this series. She really did ask you guys for advice.

Yes, she did. And when my children were old enough, they became consultants, and she would say, like, "I need another joke for Page 15. Think of some jokes."

And she only took the ones that she really thought were funny. But we all know which ones we got it in. And we're very proud of them.

Badges of honour in the family, certainly. Your mom's first book, back in 1971, was called, Cockroach. So what inspired her to write a kid's book about that topic?

She was living in New York City in a sort of low-rent apartment, and her apartment actually didn't have any cockroaches. But there were, you know, cockroaches around. And I think it just occurred to her that there weren't any books on them. And so she decided to try to write one. 

It wasn't a funny book or like a wacky adventure like her later books. It was really just a straightforward science book about the science of cockroaches.

But she really thought that was fascinating. And when she was a child, she would have loved to read a book on cockroaches and write a report on it. So she didn't think it was at all a strange topic.

So she was always interested in creatures and science and really, the world around her, it sounds like.

Absolutely. Some of her earliest, fondest memories are being in her backyard and just finding bugs and plants and looking at everything when she was very, very young.

When I would go to bed at night, my mom would make a little book out of paper and staples, and she would write and illustrate a little easy-to-read story in it. And she would put it under my pillow.- Rachel Cole

The Magic School Bus, though, started after she was approached by a Scholastic editor who had teachers coming to him looking for, you know, educational but also entertaining science books. So how did Ms. Frizzle come about?

Yes, Craig Walker, an editor at Scholastic, approached her about a series where a teacher would take her class on crazy class trips. 

And so she thought of Ms. Frizzle and the bus and all the characters, and Craig brought [illustrator] Bruce Degen in, and that started a wonderful relationship between the two of them because they had to work very closely on the book because the pictures and the words, the ideas, are so complex. 

And your mom would also visit classrooms all over the country to speak to students. What was that like?

She spoke to students all over the country [U.S.] and all over the world.

It was difficult for her at first. She was a rather shy and introverted person, and speaking to a crowd was hard for her, but she really wanted to share the books, and she loved meeting the children. And she learned to do it.

I know you said your children have become consultants for the books as well. But she also visited their classrooms. What have they said to you about having a grandma like that?

Well, she's just their grandma. She's their Nanny — they call her — and they were very, very close to her. And of course, they always like to tell their teacher who their grandmother is because teachers are always very excited to hear that.

But to them, she's not famous. She's just someone where you go over to her house and have hot chocolate and do art and play. She was their companion and their friend.

So how are they doing?

It's still very new for all of us. We're still absorbing it.

They're a little surprised at all the attention to her. And we are all going to have to grieve her as her — as our mother and grandmother, and not as an author. But I don't think we've really begun that yet.

Is there a memory of your mom that you wouldn't mind sharing with us that you're thinking of today?

A very magical memory from my childhood was when I was in kindergarten, and I was starting to learn to read. And when I would go to bed at night, my mom would make a little book out of paper and staples, and she would write and illustrate a little easy-to-read story in it. And she would put it under my pillow.

And in the morning, I would be very excited to wake up and find the new book that had been written just for me to read as a new reader.

It seemed very normal to me at the time, but I now realize how really special and magical it was.

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Katie Geleff. Edited for length and clarity.