The Fran with Four Brains

by Benton, Jim; Benton, Jim

• ISBN13: 9781416902324
• ISBN10: 1416902325
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781442495210
• Additional ISBN(s): 9781442495210
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-28
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Summary

SO MUCH TO DO... SO LITTLE TIME!

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Contents 1. Franny's House2. Franny's School3. Getting Weaker by the Week4. Wound Too Tight5. Going Out for the Team6. Making Yourself at Home7. Me, Myself, and I...and, Uh, One More Me8. See, I Told You Nothing Could Go Wrong9. Bot, We Don't Want To10. They Get Carried Away Here11. Can I Make You a Sandwich?12. Yeah, But What's Mightier Than a Sword?13. Get Your Head in the Game14. Recipe for Destruction15. Which Is Why You Should Always, Always, Always Get a Pickle on the Side16. Great Brains Think Alike

Excerpts

Chapter TwoFRANNY'S SCHOOL

Franny also liked school. Her teacher, Miss Shelly, was great, and she always kept the kids busy with lots of challenging projects.

Already that year, they had spent time studying dinosaurs, poetry, and even ancient Egypt, which Franny really enjoyed...even though her extra-credit project ate a custodian.

Miss Shelly later made Franny unzip the mummy and release the custodian unharmed, although Franny protested and said that everybody knows mummies eat people every once in a while and that custodians should know better than to get too close.

Great teachers like Miss Shelly always keep a little pressure on, and every day after school, Franny had to make time for her homework.

Some days it was easy, like when it was about electricity, organs, or strange chemical reactions. Some days it was hard, like when it was not about monsters, or atomic radiation, or electronic brains.

But no matter how long it took, Franny also had to make time to play with her lab assistant, Igor. (He wasn't apureLab. He was also part poodle, part Chihuahua, part beagle, part spaniel, part shepherd, and part some kind of weasely thing that wasn't even exactly a dog.)

Franny had learned that not paying enough attention to Igor was dangerous. When he got too lonely, he tended to misbehave.

And Igor knew when Franny needed attention. He was really good at sensing when her schedule was getting too tight, and he was always trying to figure out ways to make her laugh. Sometimes it was juggling chain saws, sometimes it was alligator wrestling, sometimes it was wrestling alligators with chain saws.

Recently, he started dressing up like Franny and imitating her and that would always make Franny laugh so hard she could hardly breathe.

Always, that is, except when Franny felt overwhelmed by the additional load of her extra activities.Copyright © 2006 by Jim Benton.

---

Excerpted from The Fran with Four Brains
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.