Ms. Frizzle
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Valerie Felicity Frizzle is a fictional character in The Magic School Bus and Ms. Frizzle's Adventures. She is a teacher at Walkerville Elementary. She is normally referred to as Ms. Frizzle, but her students sometimes call her "the Friz." She has bright red hair and wacky clothes and is usually described as being weird. Her clothing matches the subject of each adventure. In the original books, Ms. Frizzle's dress at the end gave a clue as to what the next book was about. In the last book, her dress at the end is covered with question marks.
Liz is Ms. Frizzle's pet lizard. There is no known lizard like her in the real world, as Liz can do advanced tasks such as driving the magic bus. In original books she didn't appear to be much more than an ordinary lizard, but the cartoon series changed that. In Microsoft's Magic School Bus software, she speaks and serves as a help button.
"Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" is Ms. Frizzle's favourite saying. She encourages her kids to learn and love science. She has succeeded with all of them except for Arnold.
Ms. Frizzle lives in Walkerville in a house which has many Jetson-like inventions and runs on batteries. She is often unmindful to the point of absurdity. For example, when she and her class were about to eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex, the Friz said it would be an excellent opportunity to study the dinosaur's digestive system.
Ms. Frizzle seems to have a never-ending supply of distant relatives who used to say something unusual--for example, "As my Aunt Minerva used to say, 'there's nothing more marvelous than mud.'"
Ms. Frizzle's first name was first mentioned in The Magic School Bus in the Age of Dinosaurs, when she met an old high school friend. Her middle name is mentioned only in the CD-ROM game The Magic School Bus Explores the Rainforest.
Ms. Frizzle was voiced by Lily Tomlin in the television series and in the computer software and by Judy Graubart for the books-on-tape.
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Relatives of Ms. Frizzle
Ms. Frizzle's Mother
Ms. Frizzle's mother appears in The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses. She has pink hair and a pet cat named Fred.
Dottie
Dottie Frizzle is Ms. Frizzle's niece. She appears in The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip. She has red hair and is about the same age as the students in Ms. Frizzle's class. Dottie wants to grow up to be just like her aunt, but Arnold thinks she already is.
Murph
Katrina Eloise "Murph" Murphy is Ms. Frizzle's cousin. She appears in the Holiday Special of the cartoon series as the head of a recycling plant. She is voiced by Dolly Parton.