Phoebe Terese

Phoebe Terese is a fictional character on the animated children's series The Magic School Bus. She is voiced by Maia Filar.

Background
Phoebe is the new student in Ms. Frizzle's class, always comparing to how things were at her old school. The caring soul of the class, she also seems to be a little bit shy, her biggest fear being stage fright. She's shown to love all animals, including bugs, and she supports recycling, once proposing that they build a recycling center on the empty lot on Decatur. Despite her love of nature, she doesn't have much of a green thumb, as she can't grow a bean plant and thinks there's a rock inside of the flower she grew at her old school.

Storyline
Season One

Phoebe is introduced in "Gets Lost in Space" but she doesn't mention her old school or make any indication she's new until "For Lunch." She shows her caring side and love for animals in "All Dried Up" when she creates Students Against Desert Scarcity ("S.A.D.S.") after Carlos goes on about the ones suffering in the desert. She learns the hard way that they don't need her. The class visits her old school in "Goes to Seed" to get her flower so their garden isn't incomplete when they're showcased on the cover of Plant It! magazine.

Season Two

Phoebe helps Arnold chase down a dinosaur that stole his borrowed fossilized egg in "The Busasaurus," moments in the episode implying she has developed a crush on him. In "Butterfly and the Bog Beast," the class is trying to come up with a new mascot for the school's soccer team, and everyone dismisses her idea: The Butterflies. All but Arnold turn on her when Janet points out that the rival team, the Bulldogs, is Phoebe's old school's team. Eventually, they all compromise and name the team the Bog Beast Butterflies. In "Cold Feet," it's her turn to take Liz home for the weekend, but she is gone. When they track her down to a place called Herp Haven, Phoebe is sent to infiltrate the place with her pet busigator, "Valerie."

Season Three

Phoebe is against taking honey from bees in "In a Beehive," and she's stuck on an ice flow with Liz, Ralphie, and the bus in "In the Arctic." She feels bad for a giant praying mantis in a 1950s sci-fi movie in "Spins a Web," wishing the military in the film would trap it instead. Ms. Frizzle takes the class into the film where Phoebe tries to make this happen. Her fear of being on stage is revealed in "Gets Planted," but despite it, she's turned in to a bean plant to play the beanstalk in the class play, Jack and the Beanstalk.

Season Four

When Arnold's skin is orange in "Goes Cellular," he wants to know the difference between his skin and Phoebe's. She's picked to represent the school in a Slam Dunk-a-Thon in "Gains Weight," despite the fact she can't do a slam dunk. She's a fox along with Arnold and Tim in "In the City," and she's partners with Arnold in "Takes a Dive."

Relatives

 * Phoebe's father makes an appearance in "Going Batty." He's blind and, like her, mentions how things were at her old school. Her mother has never been shown. He has expressed to Ms. Frizzle that he's glad that they transferred her to Walkerville Elementary.
 * In the original books, she lives with her grandparents, her parents not mentioned.
 * In The Magic School Bus Science Chapter Book: Penguin Puzzle, she has an uncle named Cecil Byrd who's from Australia.

Trivia

 * Her first appearance is in the 1987 book The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth where she is "the new kid."
 * Being on stage in front of people is her biggest fear.
 * She weighs 65 pounds.
 * Her eyes are hazel in "Goes Cellular" but they are green on the Creepy, Crawly Fun! DVD cover.
 * She knows the metric system.
 * In "In the Haunted House," she plays the saxophone.
 * She's left handed or south-pawed ("Gets Ants in Its Pants").
 * Ex: "At my old school, our librarian didn't let us drive in our books." From Plays Ball