How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightening
Author: Rosalyn Schanzer
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Copyright: 2003
Pages: 40
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Genre: Children’s Non-Fiction
Rating: ****

Summary:
Ben Franklin really did steal lightening, but that was not the only thing he did. He was a swimmer, politician, writer, inventor and more. He loved to help people. In fact he is the one we have to thank for starting public libraries and mail dropped off to our homes! He also wrote almanacs, started a fire department, and a free academy. The fire department was such a blessing to the people because fires were a common site in town whenever lightening would strike. Burning houses to the ground and killing many. Franklin along with helping other loved to invent! He loved books and his library was so large that he had to invent a char that when you pulled the seat up stairs came out to reach his books along with a long wooden pull to grab books off high shelves. He also invented bifocal so people could both see far away and read up close. Created an odometer to measure how far someone went, a fireplace that heated fast and required less wood, and not to mention he talked the importance of fruits before anyone had ever heard of vitamin C, and he encouraged exercise. Traveling to England and France he heard about the “electricians” they had and took a wire home to experiment with himself. Doing these trick made him think how he could steal lightening from the sky. So he made a kite with a wire on top to attract the lightening, then ran a string down it and tied a key to the bottom. He and his son stood in the doorway with the kite flying, but nothing happened until they almost gave up and when he brought his knuckle close to the key he got quite a shock! He had stolen lightening! He took this knowledge and made lightening rods. People connected a metal rod to their roof or ships and ran a wire from it to the ground where the lightening could now follow a safe path and didn’t burn a thing. This simple invention saved many, many lives and Franklin won many awards for it. Ben Franklin was a man of many talks and colors. There are so many things he did that we still use today. We all owe him a big thanks!

Who would benefit from reading this?
This is a great book for kids to read when they are learning about the writers of the declaration of independence or our countries history. There are so many facts, but they are presented in a much less boring and friendlier way.

Potential problems/conflicts:
I don’t sense any problems or conflicts in the book, it may be too factual to keep the attention of some children, but other than that, I think it is a much friendlier approach to studying our countries history.

My reaction:
I had no idea how many things Ben Franklin invented! In fact I didn’t even know about the lightening, the thing he won the most award for! I like how the facts were presented in this book, and they didn’t have too much detail. It was nicely written and an easy but not too quick of a read. I am thankful Ben Franklin came along though because I don’t know what we would be doing without libraries and mail to own doorsteps. An ingenious man no doubt!