The Fran with Four Brains

The Fran With Four Brains is book six in this great series of adventures following one of the most interesting and well written child characters to come along in a very long time. For those who have only read this great book and are wondering which of Benton's former books in the series to buy first, I'd recommend Jim Benton's first three Franny K masterpieces Lunch Walks Among Us, Attack of the 50-Ft. Cupid or The Invisible Fran. I work as a library assistant and when I have asked kids if they enjoyed this and other books in this series the answer is always yes. That's pretty rare for a series of books, but this series is that good! I've checked these books out myself to see what all the fuss is about. These books all can be enjoyed by adults as well as kids, a feat not always done by junior fiction writers, even with the really popular amongst kids books. I didn't read these in order either as there's a long wait for some titles, so I'll point out they all have individual storylines so if this is the first book you've come across it can easily be read first. Franny 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. The length of these books are 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 (where you get the first four titles, obviously not including this one) which at the time of this review seems to retail for about the same price as just two Franny K. Stein books. In her sixth adventure Franny is getting frustrated that her mother is forcing her to spend more and more time on activities away from her lab, such as soccer, cooking and playing the bagpipes. She comes up with a brilliant plan and creates three robot versions of herself. She instructs them to master the tasks while she concentrates on her lab experiments. Only problem is with the robots so ful of energy, her mother is getting really tired. Being to young to have seen the Terminator movies, Fran is unaware of what happens when humans try to turn the machines off, or down. The machines see only one solution, rid the world of Fran and her family. It is up to Fran and her lab assistant Igor, to win the war against the machines.

The book is about a girl named Franny. She is a mad scientist and she went back in time to change her middle name. At school she won the science fair and they announced her name: Franny Kissypie Stein. She didn't like because people laughed at it. Then she traveled back in time to when she was first born. She changed her middle name to Kaboom. Then she went to the future and sees herself as a teenager. The theme of the book is don't make fun of people's names. This is one of my favorite books. I used to not like reading, but then I read this book and now I like to read. I recommend this book for kids age 8 and up. by Matthew

This was my first foray into the word of Franny K. Stein. My grandson read me two chapters every night and you know what. I enjoyed it as much as he did and now he is reading the entire series. It has made an "avid reader" out of my 7 yr old grandson....isn't that what a children's book series should do. Start your little ones with this one - it will not disappoint. Only drawback are the black and white pictures but, this too is getting them into bigger and better things to read in the very near future.

This is the sixth book in the Franny K. Stein series and it is just as great as all the others. My 10 year old daughter has been reading Franny K. Stein books for the past several years and has enjoyed this one tremendously. Highly recommended.

This book just arrived Friday, and my 6- and 10-yr-olds read it together (they usually fight like cats and dogs) because they couldn't decide who should get it first! Mom ended up joining the fun, and no one left until the whole book was finished! Any time the kids keep saying "Can't we just read one more chapter", I'd say "It's a hit!"