LS 5603 Book Review: BEN FRANKLIN'S ALMANAC

Biography
Bibliography
Fleming, Candace. 2003. BEN FRANKLIN'S ALMANAC: BEING A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE GOOD GENTLEMAN'S LIFE. New York, NY: Scholastic. ISBN 0-43966956-1

Plot Summary
The life and times of Benjamin Franklin presented in as columns and stories reminiscent of an old fashioned newspaper.

Critical Analysis
Fleming's extensive use of paintings, pictures, engravings, etchings, woodcuts, sketches, portraits and Ben's writings gives this biography a plethora of facts gleaned from first hand resources. The author also has a bibliography, picture sources, websites about Ben, and an index to help the reader locate specific information. One of the beauties of this book is that it does not need to be read front to back but can be perused by sections. Readers can flip through to find things that interest them, as Fleming says, "You will find souvenirs from Ben's travels, keepsakes from his childhood, bits of his family life, and pieces of his private thoughts."

Especially interesting is all the anecdotes that are not common knowledge. Tidbits like the story about Ben splurging all his pocket change on a tin whistle that irritated his family immensely. Stories about how Ben was a vegetarian for a time. Glimpses into how Ben thought, for example, Ben developed a phonetic alphabet but wound up giving it up because he could not "uz a simplr verzun al hiz lyf".

The only drawback to this biography stems from it's strength. Since Fleming uses so much of Ben's writings and documents from the 1700's, readers may struggle with unfamiliar vocabulary. Many times readers can glean meaning from context however, words like "fledgling", "seances", and "shillings" are not in many peoples common vocabulary.

Review Excerpts
From SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "In scrapbook style, the chapters are centered around excellent-quality visuals-portraits, etchings, cartoons, and sketches-linked together with engrossing text and numerous nuggets of Franklin's prose, which include his reminiscences and observations."
From BOOKLIST: "The science section is perhaps the best as it falls neatly into invention-specific discussions. Lively anecdotes greatly expand the main text, and numerous quotes by and about Franklin give the man a truly human face, even as they raise questions that continue to puzzle historians. "

Connections
*Have children read the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and compare the two books. Did you prefer one format over the other? Why? Were there gaps in either book? Did either book contain information that the other one did not have? Why do you think this is?
*Have children create an autobiography of themselves including pictures and important documents.
*Have children create a electrical experiment and make a lemon battery, instructions found at http://wow.osu.edu/experiments/electricity/lemon.html