Customer Reviews

Many Lives of Benjamin Franklin, The

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

 

 

This was a simple overview of Benjamin Franklin's life and his contributions to the United States. When Ben was born in Boston, his parents knew he was special because he was curious, had a sense of humor, and read a lot. He always tried different ways of doing things such as making paddles to swim faster and holding onto a kite while he swam so it could pull him. Ben was sent to live with his brother, James. James was a printer, so Ben wanted to learn to print also. Ben wrote letters for the newspaper without his brother's permission. When James discovered Ben's dishonesty, Ben decided to move to Philadelphia. Benjamin worked hard at printing until finally he bought his own shop. Benjamin married and had two children. His contributions to Philadelphia are tremendous, such as starting a reading club called Junto, starting the first free library, fire department, hospital and school, and even proved that lightning was electricity. Before Benjamin Franklin died at age 84, he helped free America through signing the Declaration of Independence and writing the Constitution of the United States.

How to sum up Benjamin Franklin: he was a statesman, author, printer, diplomat, inventor and probably much else (like humorist and librarian).

And Aliki (Brandenburg) does a pretty good job of getting all of these things across to children which is why the previous reviewer and I have given this book 5 stars.

The artwork is colorful and frequently in a cartoon-magazine sort of style. Besides the text there are pictures in which various characters have 'balloon' dialog with each other.

Amazon doesn't give an age range, but I know that 5 is too young. While we greatly enjoyed Aliki's "Johnny Appleseed", this book was on a more sophisticated level. It is not so much that the text is complicated, but rather that so many of Franklin's activities don't make sense to a really small child.

For example, electricity and diplomacy went right over my children's' heads. An example of text follows so that you can gage the reading level for yourself:

"He had lots of his own ideas. Even at play, Ben was thinking.
He liked to swim, and often tried different ways. Once he made paddles so he could go faster.

Another time he was kite flying near a pond and had a brighter idea. He went for a swim holding onto the kite string. Just as he had hoped, the kite pulled him across the pond."

Five Stars. Colorful, cartoon-like drawings that most children should respond to. And though it is a good, beginning introduction to Benjamin Franklin's fantastic career, it might be over the heads of many young children. Then again, you could just buy it and wait.