The Wild Leaf Ride by Judith Bauer Stamper

The Wild Leaf Ride by Judith Bauer Stamper

My rating: ★★★☆☆

The Wild Leaf Ride is a Level 2 Scholastic Reader that ties into the Magic School Bus franchise. Level 2 Scholastic Readers feature "vocabulary and sentence length for beginning readers", as stated on the back of the book.

In The Wild Leaf Ride, the cast of the Emmy award winning television show, The Magic School Bus, are learning about leaves with a game they call "Leaf Hunt". They have already gathered and identified a leaf from each of the seven trees on their school property--except for one. As they go searching for this elusive seventh leaf, Judith Stamper presents factoids on various kinds of leaves.

The Wild Leaf Ride is light on actual information, compared to what I'd expect from a Magic School Bus Science Reader; while leaf facts are presented, they're supplemental to the plot of the book and not a part of the main narrative. As such, I wouldn't advise anyone to attempt to teach their children about leaves with this book; it might serve as a good companion to another book about trees or leaves (or perhaps to the The Magic School Bus Gets Planted episode of the show), but I hardly think the book has enough information to serve as a lesson unto itself.

Nevertheless, I would recommend The Wild Leaf Ride to parents reading to their toddlers or children in the early stages of learning to read (particularly those who are already fans of the Magic School Bus franchise).