Franny Rules

Jim Benton’s Franny K. Stein books can be a nice segue from picture books to chapter books; indeed, they are so well-illustrated that there is something new to see on nearly every page. Franny is a little girl who also happens to be a bat-keeping, monster-loving mad scientist. Benton’s prose stays clear of the mannered Lemony Snicket approach and presents Franny as a fairly normal little girl, or at least as normal as a little mad scientist could be–someone who wants to be liked by her friends, who feels lonely and afraid sometimes, who can be sweet and caring when not creating monsters or practicing ancient spells. I’ve lost track of how many are in this series now, and Benton has begun merchandising Franny so your child may actually encounter her in a keychain or lunchbox before reading about her in the books. Don’t dismiss the series because of that: these books are fun, easy to read aloud, and, despite the semi-scary appearance of the covers, not bad bed-time reading.