Plot Summary - This is the story of how a rebellious apprentice became an American icon. This engaging book will pull readers in from the very beginning. In 1723 Ben Franklin arrived in Philadelphia as a poor and friendless seventeen-year-old who had run away from his family and an apprenticeship in Boston.
Personal Reaction - This was an interesting book. I learned things about Ben Franklin I had forgotten or didn't know at all.
Memorable Literary Element - Only 86 pages long, yet the author packs a lot of important information into the book about what was happening in America and Europe while he reveals how Franklin became an American icon through intelligence, hard work, and imagination.
Illustrations - This book is decorated with images of historical diagrams, documents, engravings and paintings, and packed with many interesting quotes.
Review - School Library Journal There are numerous excellent children’s books about Benjamin Franklin, including Robert Byrd’sElectric Ben (Dial, 2012), Rosalyn Schanzer’s How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning (HarperCollins, 2002), and Candace Fleming’s Ben Franklin’s Almanac (S & S, 2003). Freedman, however, is a master at taking primary sources and turning them into engaging narratives that draw readers into the subject. While the three earlier books are highly visual presentations, this treatment is more about the text. Numerous paintings and engravings are included, but they are not the main event. Tracing Franklin’s life chronologically, the author chose episodes that reflect how the young man, disgruntled with being his brother’s apprentice, made a life for himself, and how he became the figure who is revered today. By describing the obstacles Franklin overcame in establishing his print shop in Philadelphia, Freedman delineates a clear path between his subject’s early ambition and his ease with people to his success in business and then to his later roles as a diplomat, revolutionary, and public servant. Biographers make decisions about what to leave out as much as what to put in, but Freedman is consistent in connecting his discussion to primary sources. The result is an account that examines the whole of Franklin’s remarkable life but does not overwhelm readers.–Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher’s School, Richmond, VA
Promotion - This would be an excellent resource for a Founding Fathers study and the founding of America. Collaboration with a social studies teacher would benefit all involved.
Personal Reaction - This was an interesting book. I learned things about Ben Franklin I had forgotten or didn't know at all.
Memorable Literary Element - Only 86 pages long, yet the author packs a lot of important information into the book about what was happening in America and Europe while he reveals how Franklin became an American icon through intelligence, hard work, and imagination.
Illustrations - This book is decorated with images of historical diagrams, documents, engravings and paintings, and packed with many interesting quotes.
Review - School Library Journal There are numerous excellent children’s books about Benjamin Franklin, including Robert Byrd’sElectric Ben (Dial, 2012), Rosalyn Schanzer’s How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning (HarperCollins, 2002), and Candace Fleming’s Ben Franklin’s Almanac (S & S, 2003). Freedman, however, is a master at taking primary sources and turning them into engaging narratives that draw readers into the subject. While the three earlier books are highly visual presentations, this treatment is more about the text. Numerous paintings and engravings are included, but they are not the main event. Tracing Franklin’s life chronologically, the author chose episodes that reflect how the young man, disgruntled with being his brother’s apprentice, made a life for himself, and how he became the figure who is revered today. By describing the obstacles Franklin overcame in establishing his print shop in Philadelphia, Freedman delineates a clear path between his subject’s early ambition and his ease with people to his success in business and then to his later roles as a diplomat, revolutionary, and public servant. Biographers make decisions about what to leave out as much as what to put in, but Freedman is consistent in connecting his discussion to primary sources. The result is an account that examines the whole of Franklin’s remarkable life but does not overwhelm readers.–Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher’s School, Richmond, VA
Promotion - This would be an excellent resource for a Founding Fathers study and the founding of America. Collaboration with a social studies teacher would benefit all involved.