Dorothy Ann

Dorothy Ann (aka "D.A.") is a fictional character on the animated children's series The Magic School Bus. She is voiced by Tara Meyer.

Background
Dorothy Ann is the beautiful class bookworm, always looking for a fact in one of her many books. She is the "smart one" in the class, able to reference a large variety of books. Her last name is never mentioned in the canon, books and TV show. She loves astronomy. She has a telescope on the balcony outside of her bedroom and gets a new, high-powered one for her ninth birthday in "Sees Stars." She also has an interest in physics. Despite her intelligence and beauty, she tends to have an argumentive personality and has clashed with the others from time to time, most notably Wanda ("Takes A Dive"), Ralphie ("Plays Ball"), and Carlos ("Blows Its Top, Makes a Rainbow").

Storyline
Season One

Dorothy Ann is introduced with the rest of the class in "Gets Lost In Space," but her researching habits are not shown until "For Lunch." Her first focus episode is "In the Haunted House" in which she's conducting the class as they perform her "Concerto for Invented Instrument." She's seen doing a chemistry experiment while the class bakes Ms. Frizzle a birthday cake in "Gets Ready, Set, Dough." Her last focus episode of the season is "Plays Ball." Excited to show off her new physics book, she's disappointed when the class only cares about the baseball game they were playing. She's even more disappointed when Ralphie leaves her book on the field, but they end up inside it, playing a frictionless baseball game.

Season Two

The season opens with a D.A.-focused episode, "Blows Its Top." She and Carlos argue over discovering a new island, until she loses her books to the ocean. Feeling lost and empty without them, she begs Ms. Frizzle to help her get them back, "Please, Ms. Frizzle! I'm nothing without my books! Me, books...books, me!" In "Butterfly and the Bog Beast", her mascot suggestion is a broccoli, and despite her choice of mascot, she sides with the others against Phoebe's butterfly idea. She speaks on "behalf of the court" during Ms. Frizzle's trial in "In a Pickle," and she's embarrassed by Carlos' brother, Mikey, when he brings up a heat rash she once got in "Getting Energized." In "Out of This World," she discovers an asteroid bound for Earth, more specifically, Walkerville Elementary, and she gets the class to help her destroy it.

Season Three

In "Show and Tells," she and Arnold are representing Walkerville in the 10th Annual International Show & Tell Competition, and after researching Arnold's rare pumice collection, she's upset that he opted to bring an artifact she knows nothing about. She fights with Carlos again in "Makes a Rainbow," which is bad enough for Wanda to comment, "This could get ugly." She's made a rainforest inspector with Tim in "In the Rainforest" when they try to find out why Ms. Frizzle's cocoa tree didn't yield a good harvest.

Season Four

Mr. Rhule puts D.A. in charge of taking care of his pet Rhode Island Red rooster, Giblets, in "Cracks a Yolk," but she loses him once Mr. Rhule is gone. She turns nine in "Sees Stars," in which the class goes on a field trip before getting together for her small party to find her a star as a gift. As she was sick, she stayed home, but Liz is with her, eating cake and looking in her new telescope. She and Wanda butt heads in "Takes a Dive" when she wants to work as partners, but Wanda wants to go solo.

Appearance
Dorothy Ann has blonde hair and slightly tanned skin. She wears her hair in pigtails, which stay up without the hair bands (Goes on Air). She wears a purple turtleneck sweater, a turquoise pleated skirt, folded purple socks and dark red sneakers. She always has her pink messenger bag of books with her. On the Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! DVD cover, she has blue eyes.

Relatives
Dorothy Ann's parents both appear in "Going Batty," and her mother appears again in "Out of This World." She has a little sister named Evan, who is blonde like her and their mother.

Trivia

 * Her pigtails stay up without hair bands ("Goes on Air").
 * She knows enough about music to know how to keep time as a conductor.
 * On the Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! DVD cover, she has blue eyes.
 * She's very reliant on her books.
 * In "Meets the Rot Squad" she wanted to build an amusement park on the abandoned lot on Decatur.
 * She's highly knowledgeable in astronomy, enough to accurately track an asteroid.
 * She says "violet," as opposed to "purple".
 * Despite not liking baseball, she's skilled enough to hit a home run that causes the ball to rip open.