AC writes: “I read your article about The Magic Tree House Book Series. I wanted to make sure that my children were safe from New Age dangers if they read and watch The Magic School Bus series which is about science, health, etc.  Could you please advise me?”

The Magic School Bus Series, written by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen, is not New Age or magic-based (as in the occult). The stories are actually about a school teacher named Ms. Valerie Frizzle and her class who use a special school bus that takes them to places where they can explore science in an interesting way; for instance, the solar system, the five senses, clouds, the human body, etc.

There was also a Saturday morning animated television series based on these books and is one of the highest-rated PBS shows for school-age children.” Re-runs of the series can still be seen on a variety of local networks.

From what I have read from Christian reviews of these books, they are very popular with children and do not contain the overt magical component that can be found in the Magic Tree House series where the main characters become involved with magicians and magic spells.

However, they are not written from a Christian world-view and contain evolutionary content that Catholic parents should be aware of. This presents a great opportunity to explain to children God’s role in evolution so that they don’t grow up with the secular notion that evolution means God was not involved in the creation of the world.