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He found new inspiration upon attending an art show of Norman Rockwell, best known for his The Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations.

Degen began writing children s books professionally in 1975, and shortly after reached two important milestones his first book, Aunt Possum and the Pumpkin Man , was published and his son Ben was born. Secondary roads in Sandy Hook, including the four-way intersection in Sandy Hook Center, saw additional traffic that morning as drivers tried to circumvent the interstate slowdown by leaving the highway in Southbury and using back roads to avoid the backup.

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Illustrator Honoring Late Friend, Final ‘Magic School Bus’ Book During Virtual Library Event

Generations of children, caregivers, and teachers have imaginatively buckled up and taken a ride on The Magic School Bus through the beloved nonfiction book series that sold more than 93 million print copies worldwide.

Longtime Newtown resident Bruce Degen illustrated The Magic School Bus and will give a special presentation through C.H. Booth Library on Thursday, May 19, at 7 pm via Zoom.

Degen plans to share how he collaborated with The Magic School Bus author Joanna Cole, who became his close friend and also lived in town for quite some time.

Attendees will even get to see slides showcasing the newest and last book in the series, The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution. The book will mark the end of an era of Degen and Cole’s work together, as Cole passed away in 2020.

On April 29, Degen spoke to The Newtown Bee to let residents know what they can look forward to at the upcoming event, as well as his journey as an illustrator and how living in Newtown has positively impacted his life.

‘I Gotta Draw’

Growing up, Degen was a Brooklyn boy who had an undeniable passion for art.

“I always, always, always loved to draw,” he said.

In grade school, he found himself easily bored with the standard teaching methods and would much rather be doing something creative to hold his attention, he said.

Fortunately, he had a teacher, Miss Rich, who saw his intelligence and found what he needed to help focus was just a bit of multitasking.

“If I got bored, I was a very annoying kid … she would let me stay in the back of the room and paint, because then I wouldn’t get bored,” Degen said.

He recalled how when the class would do spelling tests, Miss Rich would verbally ask him how to spell a certain word and he would recite it accurately, all while standing up and painting.

Twhose formative memories inspired Degen to write and illustrate the HarperCollins book I Gotta Draw.

“It’s supposedly not me,” Degen said. “It’s a young dog who’s an artist named Charlie Muttnik. He happens to live in Brooklyn, where I happened to live. He likes to draw, and he has a teacher named Miss Rich, who I had.”

Art was a top priority for him, even at a young age, and was a clear path for him to pursue.

“My parents were kind of hopeless about me … I was good at spelling and math, but I was terrible at conduct. I found all the report cards recently that my mother had once put away, and in every report card since kindergarten to junior high school I had bad marks in conduct because I would get bored,” Degen shared.

After junior high, he passed the admissions test to attend The High School of Music & Art, known today as LaGuardia High School, at Lincoln Center.

It was there that he had a teacher who encouraged him to go to The Cooper Union, a private college in Manhattan.

“I did all kinds of artwork. I did painting, printmaking, sculpture, and all kinds of things there. I worked as an advertising agent during the summer to make money so I could go to school in the winter,” Degen said.

He then went on to graduate from Pratt Institute with a master’s degree in printmaking and painting.

“I thought that’s what I wanted to mainly do, to be a fine artist,” Degen said. “One day I decided, when I was hanging my master show, that I really felt bored with the idea of making artwork to put on the wall. It just seemed a little beside the point. I didn’t know what I was going to do, because art was the biggest thing I did.”

He found new inspiration upon attending an art show of Norman Rockwell, best known for his The Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations.

“I noticed people walking around this gallery and they were chuckling to each other. They were having a very good time. You don’t see people chuckling in most fine arts galleries in Manhattan,” Degen said.

It sparked the idea in him to switch gears and focus on creating humorous illustrations, which he had not done since childhood. From there, he dived into the world of illustrating and writing children’s books.

“I took one course at night with a wonderful teacher, Barbara Bottner, and I walked out of that course with a portfolio full of drawings and book ideas,” Degen said. “I went around to visit the publishers in Manhattan with my portfolio and I started doing children’s books.”

Career Success

Degen began writing children’s books professionally in 1975, and shortly after reached two important milestones: his first book, Aunt Possum and the Pumpkin Man, was published and his son Ben was born.

He said, “In the ‘book dummy,’ which is the sketch version of the book, he wasn’t born yet. I wrote, ‘To [his wife] Chris and Spot’ because we didn’t know who he would be. In the final artwork I could write ‘To Chris and Ben.’”

Over the next decade, Degen went on to release a steady flow of books that he illustrated, including many he also authored.

He wore both hats for his popular children’s book Jamberry, about a berry-loving boy and a bear. It received multiple honors such as the Children’s Book of the Year award by the Child Study Association of America.

“Jamberry has been in print since 1983, and there are generations of people raised on it who raised their kids on it,” Degen shared.

Bears proved to be a specialty of Degen’s, and he illustrated all ten books in the Jesse Bear series by Nancy White Carlstrom.

He also illustrated a series of spoof science fiction books by Jane Yolen called Commander Toad.

“It’s all these frogs and toads up in space and the ship is called the Star Wartz. It has all these puns,” Degen said.

After building a solid reputation for himself in the industry, Degen received a call from Scholastic Editor Craig Walker in 1984 that impacted the trajectory of his personal and professional life.

“Scholastic was unique in the fact that they had those book fairs and book clubs that kids could order the books that they desired off of lists,” Degen explained. “Craig said to me, ‘I can offer the most wonderful nonfiction, science, history, and other things and kids will not order them. I can order the silliest joke book and they sell out. What if we could find a way to marry serious science with some humor to get kids sparked up and have them follow it?’”

Walker said that he had pitched the idea to Cole, who was already an award-winning science writer and did humorous books. He asked if she could base the story around a class going on educational adventures and to make it funny, to which she agreed.

When Walker asked Degen to illustrate the proposed book, Degen was apprehensive.

He recalled Walker telling him: “I know all your work that you’ve done, and this is not going to be like that. It’s going to be the worst headache you’ve ever had, because you’ll have to do tremendous research and we found that this is going to go through many changes. You’ll have to redo it and take a long time to develop.”

Degen admitted to enjoying what he was doing and had no desire for a “headache.” Walker, however, was persuasive, according to Degen.

“He said, ‘How about we give you a nice big advance?’ And I said, ‘I’ll meet you tomorrow.’”

Life-Changing Connection

When Degen went to Scholastic to meet with Cole, they sat down together and brainstormed ideas and sketches.

“We met and we hit it off … We were a good match,” he said.

Degen emphasized that the author and illustrator for books rarely ever meet, let alone get to know each other and become friends.

What happens in most cases, he said, is that “a brilliant editor or art director and publisher put them together, because they see hundreds of people and portfolios. They see the work and say that’s a match.”

In 1986, the first book in The Magic School Bus series was published, called The Magic School Bus Goes To Waterworks.

Degen explained that Cole chose to write about reservoirs, because if they could work with a topic so underrated then they could succeed at the flashier topics of dinosaurs and space, which they would go on to do.

“She picked waterworks, she did the research, then she would send me the books she used for research, and I would find additional materials,” he said. “I would work on it, then it would go to the editor, then he would give it to experts and get their opinions in each field. We always had an expert or two. Then we would revise, so the books took a long time.”

Degen and Cole worked together to create 17 books in The Magic School Bus series, each taking about a year to complete.

“We did the core science series and then we did three in the social studies area. One is about ancient Egypt, one is medieval castles, and one is imperial China,” Degen said.

For the latter, their Chinese publisher liked the book so much they bought the rights to it and translated it into Chinese.

“I’m very proud of that,” Degen said.

After The Magic School Bus became an animated show for primary-school children that aired on PBS, the series grew in popularity.

“It exploded, and we were asked if we could do 50 books a year,” Degen said.

Not able to meet that demand or compromise the integrity of the work they created together, the author and illustrator agreed to having a separate team of people create spin-off books. While those books do not include Cole or Degen’s names on the cover, they do usually say “Based on the series by. ”

“We edited hundreds of books for free. We were freelance editors, because we tried to keep the character of everything in line,” Degen said.

Life In Newtown

At the start of the professional partnership of Degen and Cole, the two lived in New York. Degen lived in Brooklyn Heights with his family, and Cole lived in the upper west side of Manhattan with her family.

In 1989, Cole was ready to move out of New York. Her daughter Rachel was entering middle school and a good friend of hers had left the city to move to Bethel. When Cole discovered Newtown, she found that it was a nice town with good schools, so she bought a house here.

Shortly after, Degen — who had lived in New York all his life — was looking to move somewhere in the Hudson Valley, where he had previously vacationed. Yet, house after house was just not meant to be.

“We went to a barbecue at Joanna’s house when she was already in town and I didn’t have a real connection with Connecticut. It was a place you went through to get to Boston,” he said.

“I said to Joanna, ‘How would you feel if we moved here?’ And she said, ‘Great, I was hoping you would say that,’” he recalled.

Cole connected Degen with a real estate agent, and his family moved to Newtown in 1990.

“My being here in Newtown absolutely came from me meeting Joanna Cole … We had become good friends doing this together and it was just wonderful. That’s how I got to Newtown.” Degen said.

One of his favorite memories of the two of them in town was when they were doing research for The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs. One of their scientific consultants was Armand Morgan from Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, who visited them in person in Newtown.

“We met at Joanna’s house,” Degen recalled. “He brought with him dinosaur teeth from the collection and put them on the table and said, ‘This is what I want to show you.’”

They learned that the teeth of meat-eating dinosaurs all basically had the same saber-shaped design to tear meat, while plant eating dinosaurs had all different shaped teeth depending on what specific vegetation they ate.

“We were actually holding dinosaur teeth and playing with them on Joanna’s kitchen table with Armand Morgan,” Degen said. “It was really wonderful.”

Cole later moved out of town, first to Virginia to be close to her daughter during her college years, and eventually to Iowa before her death, but the town was a special bond to Cole and Degen.

One of the biggest perks of their friendship and living so close to one another was when they would travel for work. The two could carpool to their destination or drive to the airport together.

“I knew what she had for breakfast every morning at hotels,” he said with a laugh about how close they were. “It was quite a friendship that is sorely missed.”

Lasting Legacy

When Degen set out to be an illustrator, he had no idea that he would end up meeting Cole or moving to Newtown. He also never realized that his work would go on to impact people of all ages around the world.

“I thought I would be the artist in the studio that sends something out to the world and sees it in a little book shop,” he said. “Then I realized that you go out and you meet the people who love what you do and they can actually recite things back to you about what you’ve done.”

Degen has always been in awe of what The Magic School Bus series has inspired, whether it be a grade school in Cleveland that had students create a rainforest adventure in their gymnasium or a scientific report detailing how students retained more about the solar system through The Magic School Bus than a standard science book.

“There were things like that all over the country that would just knock you over,” he said.

Degen is looking forward to sharing behind-the-scenes stories of working with Cole, the process of creating The Magic School Bus Series, and what the last installment will teach readers during the program being organized through his hometown library.

Registration is required for individuals to virtually attend The Magic School Bus event on May 19. To do so, visit chboothlibrary.org.

To purchase a signed personalized copy of The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution, visit the Children’s Department of Booth Library, 25 Main Street, by Tuesday, May 10.

For those interested in purchasing a copy, but who miss the deadline, Degen encourages people to support local and pick up a copy at an independent bookstore.

“Our nearest independent bookstore is Byrd’s Books in Bethel. Alice Hutchinson is a great bookstore owner. If she doesn’t have a book, she will get it for you,” he said.

Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at [email protected].

Newtown resident Bruce Degen is the illustrator for The Magic School Bus books. He will be doing a program at C.H. Booth Library to discuss the final installment in the series, The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution, on Thursday, May 19. —photos courtesy Bruce Degen

Bruce Degen is an award-winning illustrator and author who has lived in Newtown for 32 years and has more than 40 children’s books to his credit.

Bruce Degen wrote and illustrated the children’s book Jamberry. Published in 1983, the classic children’s book about a berry-loving boy and the rhyme-spouting bear he meets in the woods has received multiple honors and continues to entertain new generations of readers.

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UPDATED: Westbound Exit 10 Offramp Closed For Hours Following Cattle Truck Crash UPDATE (10:33 am): This article has been updated with details from the scene. || First responders have been on the scene of a crash since 3:30 this morning, after a truck hauling nearly four dozen head of cattle rolled into the median of the I-84 West Exit 10 ramps. UPDATE (10:33 am): This article has been updated with details from the scene. UPDATE (9:06 am): This article has been updated to reflect the correct time of the crash. * * * * * Thirteen cows died — but nearly three times as many survived — early this morning after the truck they were being transported in rolled onto its side while the operator was using the I-84 West Exit 10 offramp. CT State Police, Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue (SHVFR) and Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps were initially dispatched to that area around 3:30 am Thursday, October 19, following reports of that crash. SHVFR Chief Anthony Capozziello had command of the scene, which remained active for more than seven hours. “Upon arrival, there was dense fog and the truck had rolled over on its side,” Capozziello told The Newtown Bee. “There were between 40 and 44 heads of cattle in the truck. “The driver was fine,” he continued. “He was alert, with no injuries, and was out of the truck on his own.” The driver was checked for injuries, and declined transport to the hospital. Meanwhile, the animals were trapped inside the large trailer. Seven died in the crash, said Capozziello. Six more needed to be euthanized, he said. “The other ones are all OK, and they’re in another trailer as we speak,” he said. A representative from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture confirmed to The Newtown Bee by mid-Thursday morning that there were 44 head of dairy cattle being transported from Maine to Ohio at the time of the crash. State and local animal control officers responded to the scene, the fire chief said. Newtown Animal Control Officer Carolee Mason was in contact with Capozziello within 20 minutes, and arrived on scene a short time later, he said. Local farmers were also called on to help at the emergency. “Shane Powers, a local farmer, was able to help us as was John Ferris, who has farm experience,” Capozziello noted. “We had to use our extrication tools to cut into the trailer and make openings to start offloading the cows,” Capozziello said. “Within an hour and a half we had a second transport trailer, a double decker trailer, here to load them onto.” Modzelewski’s Towing & Recovery had multiple vehicles on scene, working to upright and then tow the truck and trailer. CT DOT and DEEP crews also responded. Capozziello said that while there was no fuel tank rupture from the crash, only a small oil leak “from the engine being turned over,” the state agencies were prepared to handle fluids if they became an issue during the cleanup efforts. The westbound offramp is still closed as of the posting of this story. I-84 West itself remained open for most of the morning. It was closed for a brief time, around 10 am, but has since reopened. Westbound traffic, already heavy on weekday mornings, quickly slowed further as drivers became aware of the scene unfolding along the roadway. At one point, westbound traffic was nearly at a standstill back to Exit 15 in Southbury. Secondary roads in Sandy Hook, including the four-way intersection in Sandy Hook Center, saw additional traffic that morning as drivers tried to circumvent the interstate slowdown by leaving the highway in Southbury and using back roads to avoid the backup. ===== Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at [email protected].

We encourage you to not utilize the snapshot in time this meeting report provides to base the assumption that there is not 'clear mechanism for deprioritizing projects.' Thoughtful deliberation and deprioritizing occurs regularly when CIP business is being handled across the Board of Selectmen, Education, Finance, and Legislative Council landscapes, as it has since Newtown adopted using a CIP nearly two decades ago.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices at 84A South Main Street, Newtown is also collecting candy for Main St!

The Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) outlined in this article appears to blend discretionary and non-discretionary projects, presenting a multifaceted challenge. The pending decision concerning the middle school's HVAC work adds a layer of uncertainty to the CIP's financial landscape. Furthermore, the absence of a clear mechanism for deprioritizing projects of lower significance within the plan raises concerns about financial flexibility and strategic allocation of resources. In addressing these complexities, it's crucial to both explore the available options for the middle school project and establish a structured approach for adjusting project priorities within the CIP, ensuring that resources are optimally directed towards the most pressing community needs while maintaining fiscal responsibility.

Bruce, you seem to insinuate that those mentioned in my letter are “introducing politics” when championing a return to Blue Ribbon quality education. Meanwhile, Jim Gaston, in his Oct 12 letter, says “Democratic policies address: School (Blue Ribbon Quality). ” Do you also believe that Democrats are “introducing politics”?

In addition to their magical skills, corporate events magicians also have strong communication and presentation skills. They are able to effectively interact with the audience and engage them in the performance. They may also incorporate elements of humor and storytelling to enhance the overall experience. Another important aspect of a corporate events magician is their ability to adapt and be flexible. They must be able to quickly adjust their performances based on the needs and preferences of the audience. They may also need to perform in a variety of venues and environments, including large conference halls or outdoor spaces. Overall, a corporate events magician plays a crucial role in entertaining and engaging the audience at corporate events. They bring a sense of wonder and excitement to the occasion, while also promoting the company or brand. Their unique set of skills and ability to adapt make them a valuable asset to any corporate event..

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