Goosebumps and Bill Nye the Science Guy fans, meet Franny! There’s nothing better than being a mad scientist—at least according to Franny. So she’s making it her mission to help her classmates discover their own inner mad scientists. All Franny needs for her latest experiment is a few volunteers, a half-completed two-headed robot, and an invisibility potion. Only this experiment just might prove to be Franny’s most difficult. Because what do you do when your classmates don’t know anything about mad science—and there’s a doubly dumb robot running amok to prove it? Grade 2-5 - Hobby Day provides the perfect opportunity for Franny to share her passion for science with her classmates, but they only seem interested in mundane pastimes such as Irish step-dancing, accordion playing, stamp collecting, and baking cookies. She decides to capture their imaginations with an unfinished two-headed robot. Though the students are initially unimpressed, Franny concocts an invisibility formula and uses the power of suggestion to coax three of the children to work on it. Frantically correcting their misguided efforts, she convinces the clueless amateurs that they are indeed mad scientists. The plan backfires when the trio secretly returns to school to finish the job. By morning, their creation has wrecked the building. Misspelled graffiti and giant spit wads lead the horrified heroine to the library where she struggles to stop the reckless robot. Ironically, her friends save the day with their boring hobbies. As a final touch, Franny transforms the flattened robot into a pastry oven and bakes pretty cookies. Every page of the 19 short chapters features cartoons rendered in pen, ink, and watercolor. The pigtailed protagonist looks suitably "mad" with her demonic grin and narrowed eyes. Children will particularly enjoy the image of the cafeteria ladies secretly sculpting a life-size model from lunch meat. Beginning readers and fans of the popular cartoon Dexter's Laboratory will enjoy this offering. - Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. National Enquirer Smart, confident, and totally PUNK! Jim Benton is the New York Times bestselling writer of the Dear Dumb Diary series and a cartoonist whose unique brand of humor has been seen on toys, television, T-shirts, greeting cards, and even underwear. Franny K. Stein is the first character he’s created especially for young children. A husband and father of two, he lives in Michigan, where he works in a studio that really and truly does have creepy stuff in it. The Invisible Fran By Jim Benton Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Copyright © 2004 Jim Benton All right reserved. ISBN: 0689862938 Chapter Seven: Wire You Looking At My Robot That Way? Franny sat at her desk, grinning. She couldn't wait to give her presentation. "Franny," Miss Shelly said, "would you please come up here and show the class what you've brought in?" Franny walked confidently to the front of the class. She knew that the kids would take one look at the robot and abandon their ridiculous hobbies. She removed the sheet that had been draped over her creation. The kids gasped. It was a robot. A few lights pulsed slowly on its chest, and they could hear a soft hum coming from inside it. Its tiny square eyes seemed to blink. "Why does it have two heads?" one boy asked. "Two heads are better than one," Franny said. "When it's complete, those two heads will make it twice as smart as the next smartest robot. Twice as useful, twice as complicated." Franny held up the robot's blueprints for the kids to see. Miss Shelly said, "Franny, did you say that it wasn't complete yet?" "That's right, Miss Shelly. It's not complete. I'm going to need other mad scientists to help me, other mad scientists from the class, perhaps. Are there any volunteers?" Billy raised his hand. Franny was smug. The first of many volunteers, she thought. "Yes," she said. "You'd like to help?" "I would," Billy said. "After you finish it, I mean. Then I can teach it to bake pretty, pretty cookies." Copyright © 2004 by Jim Benton Chapter Eight: In The Gizzard Of The Lizard Igor just hated to see Franny depressed. He did his best to cheer her up. He juggled spiders. He dressed up like her mom. He even thought about letting the giant chameleon swallow him a little bit, since that always made Franny laugh. All Franny could talk about was her friends at school. "No volunteers, Igor. They all want to stick with their pointless little hobbies. They don't get it. They don't get it at all. "They don't understand the thrill of an idea popping into your head out of nowhere, and then diving right in and making your idea just happen. "If only they could experience that," Franny said. Just then the giant chameleon appeared, as if out of nowhere, grabbed Igor, and swallowed him. Even though she was depressed, Franny l