The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin

A: The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin
B: Harness, Cheryl
D: National Geographic Society, 2005
E: Nonfiction Picture Book
F: 3-5
G: Ben Franklin was the tenth generation youngest son of a youngest son and his father knew he would be special. He grew quickly and started working a printer. One night he decided to leave his home in Boston and runaway, he ended up in Philadelphia where he quickly started working again as a printer. He wished to open his own shop, but lacking money he took the offer of the governor to go to England and he would provide the needed money. Once in England, Ben found out that the governor had lied and he was stranded. He worked for a time and the returned home to find his girlfriend had married someone else. He had a son and did finally marry is lost girlfriend and together they had Ben’s second son and a daughter. Ben also led several clubs and opened his own printing shop. He also started making inventions and studying the world around him. He discovered many things about electricity and he printed the first political cartoon. Ben even traveled to England to try to resolve the problems between the colonies and England, but to no avail and he son sided with the Patriots. When he returned home, his wife had died and his daughter was married. He helped form the original government of the colonies and helped write the Declaration of Independence. He also traveled to France to ask for help in the war with England and was treaded like royalty. Once home he was happy with the newly free country and helped write the new constitution. He lived many more years, happy and always thinking about the world.
H: This book turned out to be much more than I expected it to be. It provided a much more in-depth look at Benjamin Franklin than I was expecting. I was impressed at how this book takes so much information and offers in a way that younger children can read and understand the importance Ben Franklin had on our lives today. I also really love the illustrations in this book. They use very vivid colors, but still look as if they are from the time period. This life like appeal really drew me into this book.
My most favorite part was, however, the quotations at the bottom of each page. Quotes directly from Ben and other sources of the time are provided to reinforce the text and they also include their own illustrations. I loved this aspect of the book.
I: This would be a great book for 5th grade history. It would provide vast amounts of information to them, in a format that they can read. I also think this would be good to use parts of in a science lesson in any grade from 3rd to 5th. We could recreate some of his inventions or make our own.