Customer Reviews

Lunch Walks Among Us (Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am so happy to have found this series of books for my 3rd grade son! We both loved this book. It is funny, with great illustrations. It also has a fabulous message! I highly recommend it for your school-age kids.

Franny K. Stein is an unusual little girl. Rather than dollies and horsies and flowers, Franny loves bats and tarantulas and poison ivy. Her lunches were a bit different too! But like other little girls, Franny needs friendship. In order to make friends, Franny experiments with being someone she is not (the stereotypical little girl), but is unhappy. When she is herself, she finds that her new friends like her just as well or better! In the end, we learn that even if friends don't always like the same things, they can still be friends.

Franny K. Stein isn't your normal little girl. She's a mad scientist. And a weird one at that. When she jump ropes she uses her pet snake, and as opposed to daisies, Franny likes to pick poison ivy. Everyone at school is afraid of Franny, for she's different than the rest of them, and they find that weird. So Franny decides to create an experiment that will change her from being the weird little girl who everyone stares at, to one who fits in. But then a Giant Monstrous Fiend attacks Franny's class, and she knows that she must convert back to being a mad scientist to save the day.

In this first book in the FRANNY K. STEIN: MAD SCIENTIST series we are introduced to a crazy, wacky young girl, who loves everything out of the ordinary. Her personality and quirks are unique, and her adventures are entertaining. Jim Benton has done a marvelous job in creating an enjoyable new book series for children, whose content and illustration will mesmerize even the most reluctant reader.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

My daughter refused to read chapter books, even though she was in third grade already! That is, until we found Franny K Stein. After reading all the Franny so far released, she is finally reading other chapter books. And some days she doesn't want to put them down!
The books are so funny, and full of puns, which is something kids this age really like. And the "monsters" are very silly. And I'm really happy about all the positive messages it sends. The books show girls can be good at science and girls can like gross stuff like slime or boogers, and about how you should always be yourself and that you can be friends with someone even though you have differences.

Thank you Jim Benton for helping my little girl take the next step to enjoying reading!

The Franny K. series was just the thing to get my reluctant reader to jump into chapter books. She now reads them over and over, and can't wait for the next ones to come out....we have them all so far and her reading has improved tremendously! Thanks, Jim Benson, for a wonderful series that encourages kids to be their own unique selves!

Sugar and spice and everything nice? That's NOT Franny K. Stein! Franny is a little girl who is also a mad scientist, one who loves bats and monsters and crackling electrical gizmos. But, Franny is tired of being the outsider at school and so she takes on making friends as an experiment. Oh, but deep down, Franny is still Franny...and that is a good thing!

This fun series of books is aimed at young readers, like Captain Underpants or Ricky Ricotta. And, like those other books, it's a sure fire hit with most kids. It's got a nice lesson, but it's got a light touch, never losing sight of the idea that the lesson must be told by an entertaining read.

Yep, this is a great book, one that your young reader is sure to love. Buy it!

My first grader is an advanced reader and thinker and she is a little bored now of the Magic Treehouse series. I came across this Franny K. Stein audio/book combo at my library. It is sooooo great. It has an original story line, no rude or mouthy bad-example characters, an independent and intelligent main character, and great art throughout the books. If you can snag an audio version, I recommend it for younger readers.
Since starting the series, my almost 7 year-old has turned her doctor coat from the dress up bin into her LAB coat and has turned my laundry room into her lab. A bottle of vinegar, a box of baking soda and some kool-aid powder along with an empty notebook equal an hour of experimenting and documenting her results.
Best book series we've read so far and we are only 3 books in.

The first in a series of humorous books for the classroom/home. My students ate them up. Franny is creative, clever and different. Would love to have her in my room. She is a strong leader who solves huge problems blending science and innovation- much like her readers will do for us someday. Benton is a favorite author in room 24.

Lunch Walks Among Us is the debut adventure for one of the most interesting and well written child characters to come along in a very long time. Franny K Stein is an interesting character who doesn't follow the stereotype little girl who plays with dolls, has tea parties with stuffed animals and the like that many authors seem to want to write about. No Franny is a very intelligent girl more interested in bats, snakes, spiders, monsters and her number one passion, being a mad scientist. Interests that gel with many a real life boy or girl these days and lets be honest, always have.

In her first adventure Franny starts in a new school but due to being different finds that the other children avoid, and are even afraid of her. Her teacher knowing of her unique passion suggests she looks at making friends as a she would a science experiment. Franny studies her classmates and the differences between them and her and decides to reinvent herself. However when another child throws some unstable industrial waste (as most kids do) into the school's bin which having not being emptied for a number of days also contains one of her former lunches, the inevitable happens and a giant monstrous fiend emerges, grabs her teacher and heads for the school flagpole. As other kids run around screaming and wetting their pants, Franny will have to decide if she is going to bring out the old Franny K Mad Scientist to save the day, or keep being the more popular fake version who can't really help.

A very funny, fast paced entertaining story. This book has some differences from the rest in the series in that it also has pages that can be cut in three making various flip monsters and so forth. The length of this book is fairly short and take my word for it these books are so good you'll probably want to get a few of them, if not the whole series. They seem to be a lot cheaper buying as a box set which seems to retail for about the same price as just two Franny K. Stein books.

Want a chapter book to really start a young reader on his or her way......go no further. This series is excellent and will infectiously get a shaky novice chapter book reader to read more and more. My grandson read one then another and now is Franny Stein's Number One fan. I am a believer in getting children to read on their own and love reading. Here's a great start in the chapter book department Thank you Franny and that amazing laboratory in your house. You worked a magic potion on my grandson and made him an avid reader.

I ordered a copy of each books from this series for our school library. Now there is never one on the shelf, when one is returned it is quickly checked out again by another student. I have now ordered more copies. My daughters love the books. This one is sweet, it show's how Franny struggles to fit in and make friends. In the end she is accepted and loved for who she is.