The Fran with Four Brains

Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist #6

by Jim Benton

Being a mad scientist in the modern world is very hard work. With so much that needs to be done in such a short period of time, multitasking can get way out of hand. Franny needs some additional help. But for Franny there is only one person in the world she trusts to help her with her experiments -- herself. So she acquires assistance the mad-scientist way, by building a few real, live, steel-plated Franbots. Spotlight editions are printed on high-quality paper and with reinforced library bindings specifically printed for the library market. Grades 3-6.

Genres: Childrens, Chapter Books, Humor, Science Fiction, Middle Grade, Fiction, Juvenile

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Benton began his career in a custom design t-shirt shop where he started designing his own characters. At the same time, Jim did illustrations and artwork for magazines and newspapers. People magazine named him "the most visible cartoonist in America" .

Benton also created greeting cards and worked in the magazine and publishing industry. In 1998, his SpyDogs characters became an animated series, The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs, that aired on Fox Kids. Licensing his own creations brought them widespread attention on products, such as It's Happy Bunny, The Misters, Just Jimmy and more.

Benton currently lives in Michigan, where he operates out of his own studio.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I think maybe we don't have to be excellent at everything. I think we need to pick a couple of things, and we should try to pick the things you really and truly enjoy. And maybe, sometimes, we could just do nothing."

Mr. Benton has picked another hot topic - overscheduled children - and turned it into an amusing tale of mad science escapades and misadventures. I like that he allows Franny's mom to learn and grow in this book along with Franny. Kids aren't the only ones that need to learn these lessons. Mr. Benton is very good at creating hilarious matrices like the "Create Your Own Class" one in this book. I, for one, am intrigued by the mental pictures conjured up by Medieval Barefoot Owl Tickling or Extreme One-Handed Possum Wrestling.

For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short and easy chapter book for students in early elementary school. Franny, a mad scientist, builds some robots to help her with her over-scheduled life. The robots not only play soccer, take bagpipe lessons, and learn gourmet cooking, they also strive for excellence. Of course, Franny's robots take things too far and Franny uses clever creative thinking to defeat the robots. Franny and her mother both learn important lessons: lessons and extra activities can keep you from finding time to enjoy your life.

This is a well-done chapter book for students who are developing fluency skills. Recommended for both boys and girls. While Franny doesn't have any friends in this book, it's nice to read a book for kids that isn't overly focused on school.

[Carol Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Franny K. Stein adventure. Amber absolutely loves this series, mostly because it’s about a girl who loves science and gross things, just like Amber. Her favorite part of this one was the food ray, one of the Franbot accessories. Amber is almost 9 and this series is a little below her reading level, but that makes it fun. She doesn’t have to worry about the actual reading, she can just breeze through it and really enjoy the story.

[Almonds Animated but books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was funny, it kept me entertained and I couldn’t put it down. I wouldn’t reccommend it someone +18 years of age, it’s a kids book after all. But you do you, I won’t judge. I wouldn’t give it a 5 star rating, but it was good nonetheless.

[Oscar Guzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, I thought this book was amazing because it was realistic fiction and realistic fiction books are my favorite. a reason why I liked the book so much was because Franny K. Stein had created 3 robots that looked so much like her so they could do her extra activities that she didn't have time for so she created one for soccer, one for cooking, and one for her wind pipe lessons classes that she had but after all when they all came back from the activities she saw her mom was so tired because the robots wouldn't even give her a break to rest a little after all those activities the robots she created would do and when she saw her mom so tired Franny felt bad and then told the robots to let her have a break but they said no because that is how Franny created them to do all the things she is assigned to and even more so tried and it didn't work till one day she came up with a plan to make her self look like robot and it kind of worked because she got one robot to like self destruct but get her mad and she exploded and then she got another robot to explode by making her mad too. But there was this last one that was the cooking robot which had tools that could destroy Franny and her dog but when she told the robot your food isn't good enough she kept on trying and trying till she got so mad that she eventually self-destructed. Then she learned her lesson that she has to do what she is assigned to do.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Franny's mother has packed her schedule with extracurriculars hoping to ensure that Franny grows up to be a well-rounded person. She also demands excellence in everything. Franny doesn't necessarily mind bagpipe lessons, or gourmet-cooking classes, or soccer, but all of them combined are taking time away from her down time to work on her special mad scientist projects. She tries to talk to her mom about dropping one of the extras, but her mom thinks they are all very important. Franny decides there's just one thing to do. Create three robots to do her extracurriculars so she can spend more time in her lab. Piece of cake. Nothing could go wrong. Right?

A poignant read for the over-scheduled, and perfectionist-driven readers out there. Franny and her mom learn a valuable lesson about having boundaries in their schedules and that it is ok to do things ok rather than always excellent. Of course, a threatened robot take over is quite exciting to read about too. And kids will also love the idea of robots doing their chores and homework. This would be a great one for families to read together and then talk about how they feel about their current schedules. Recommended to scifi fans, humor fans, and of course, Franny K. Stein fans.

Notes on content: No language issues or sexual content. Violence is threatened but only robots gets seriously damaged. There's a little bit of gross factor with some "centipede milk" and other things in Franny's lab.

[Edward Creter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Franny K. Stein. Astronomy minded. A girl barely eleven. Gentlemen, we can review her latest adventure. We have the technology. We have the capability to critique her making the world's first bionic foursome. Fran K. will have that foursome. Better than she ever was. Better....stronger....faster...but not cooler! Franny is back with number six, which might as well be her six-million dollar adventure...and worth every penny! Fran and her beloved Dog Igor want the day to be faster so she can play with her assorted monsters as soon as her REAL schoolwork is finished, so she fashions three carbon copies of her to create her own Fantastic Four! But as always, reality takes over, and so do her triplicates! Can she outsmart what she hath created? Read and enjoy, and tell that OTHER bionic man we sent him!

[Dena McMurdie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for an early chapter book that breaks the norm, give this series a try. Franny is a mad scientist that kids will love. Kids that enjoy creepy things will especially like this series.

When Franny feels overwhelmed with her school and extracurricular activities, she makes a few Franbots to take her place. When Franny decides the Franbots are too active for her mother, they hatch a plan to turn Franny and her family into food. Franny must find a way to stop the bots before they take over the world.

This is a super cute and fun chapter book with black and white illustrations on every page.

Content: Some mild violence (she destroys the robots)

My blog: Batch of Books

[Veronica · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this case Franny is to tired to do all the extra school activities. So, she decided to create three robots that are exactly like her. One to learn bagpipe, other to learn soccer and another to learn to cook. Everything goes well until she sees her mom getting to tired following the robots activities. They want to be excelent and for that they will destroy everyone in the world. Franny realizes that it wasn't a good idea to create the robots, so she tricks them until they all get destroyed. Then her mom and Franny decided that she will choose what she wants to learn. I like the idea or the message but creating something to destroy it later doesn't make much sense to me.

[Katharine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for my 7 year old who loves silliness and sci-fi. He was so excited to see I had a stack of Franny K. Stein's from the library today and enthusiastically snuggled to read it.

I'm finding it can be a bit hard to find these early chapter books that are not all about "life in the second grade" (such as Judy Moody and Goony Bird). As homeschoolers, my kids don't really relate to that theme. So far, the Franny K Steins avoid too much "class" talk while also praising creativity. Love that.

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

She made three other Fran robots and like usual, her creations got her into trouble. They were just going too hard so she said, tomatoes row I'll make you a little calmer, but when she went to bed, they sneaked and made a plan. The Igor had to wake her up. The Fran had a great idea and made herself look exactly like the robots. She made them do amazing things, but then the last one figured out that Fran was destroying the other ones. Read it to see how it ends.

[Kaeleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

IT WAS VERY FUNNY.IM GLAD THAT IM READING THE FRANNY BOOKS.MY FAVORITE PART WAS WHEN FRANNY BUILT THE FRANBOTS.FRANNY HAS A DOG.ITS NOT A REGULAR DOG.THE DOG WAS PART POODLE, PART CHIHUAHUA, PART BEAGLE, PART SPANIEL, PART SHEPHERD AND PART SOME WEASEL THING.I WISH I CAN BE PART OF THE STORY.I LIKE FRANNY BECAUSE SHE IS A MAD SCIENTIST.

[Little Miss and the Legomeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Miss's latest bedtime obsession. I must admit I like these a lot better for out loud bedtime stories than her previous book, Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret. Cute if somewhat odd story.

[CC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fran is a mad scientist but not what you would expect. Fran is a little girl with a big brain, with a big brain she uses it to make creations above and beyond and because of that everyone in her class is scared. Fran makes her mind change so she is like girl with so many different personalities. To find out how crazy this girl can be read the whole series.

[Deirdre K · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite of the Franny books so far. We've read at least four of them now. The later ones have a slight showing of some "attitude" but this one and the first, Lunch Walks Among Us, keep Aidan busy for days----creating similar inventions in his "lab" ;-)

[StorySnoops · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series continues to amuse and entertain, while teaching a valuable lesson each time as well. In The Fran with Four Brains, the lesson is about how exhausting and overwhelming it can be to be an overscheduled kid... (click here for full review http://www.storysnoops.com/detail.php...)

[:) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book because, I like the Franny K. Stein books.I liked how when Franny made three robots of herself everyone thought the robots were her. I didn't like how Franny's robots were planningto kill Franny and her family.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another favorite book of ours, we have been reading more kids books these days as I am constantly trying to cram reading into them. My daughter loved this one as well. She liked the idea in her and wanted to implement it in her own life.

[Katrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all the books in this series, this is an amusing read. For some reason, Frannie K. Stein has always been a big hit with the boys in my classroom, particularly those who tend not to like reading.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Franny K. Stein solves her too busy problem with three Franbots that are excellent at what they are programmed to do. But as usual, her solution comes back to bite her. Franny finds herself up against three Franbots in order to save Igor, her family, and the world!

[KeKe_SO_LoVaBl3 {4_mii_boo_only} · Rating 5 out of 5]

this one is weird

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and clever, with fun plays on words and illustrations. Perfect for third graders.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of moms I know would benefit from reading this book....It talks about how we over-schedule our kids!

[Elora · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED JUST LOVED IT LOL LOVE THE AUTHOR

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was really funny and cool.

[Christian B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was cool because she made robots that were as smart as her. then she had to try and kill them because they were trying to kill her!taht mase it so interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was good. the girl was probably smarter than a colledge person

[Nikita]

read this man LOL

[Anica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Juneau is getting too big for these books, but still loves them. She finished this one while I was shopping around for other books. But she made me buy it anyway. That's my girl.

[Yesenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it was pretty good!