Age: 7-10 years old
Awards: The Eleanor Cameron Award for Kid's Science Fiction

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Franny K. Stein is a mad scientist (is there any other kind?), with a lab assistant named Igor (not a pure bred lab, but also part Chihuahua, part poodle, part beagle, etc). But Igor is not very competent and usually messes up her experiments. When he accidentally swallows the Doomsday Device she built for emergencies, Franny has to find a way to retrieve the bomb from the dog’s stomach. So she shrinks herself and takes a tour through Igor’s innards. Will she get to the bomb in time to save the world? And how will she get out of Igor and back to her laboratory?

This is a fun series for the younger set. I like that Franny is always thinking and experimenting. And I like how Benton mentions that her mom can “cook, read, and change the oil in the car.”
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Frantastic Voyage by Jim Benton is one in a series, Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist, which is geared to 8-10 year old children. The titled protagonist is our antihero inventor/mad scientist who lives in her lab/attic bedroom in the Stein family home. Her scientific experiments are all towards creating new technologies, such as her Doomsday Device and Shrinkerizer. Her lab assistant and dog, Igor, swallows the gumball sized Doomsday Device, and to save the world and Igor, Fran puts on her special suit and miniaturizes herself with the Shrinkerizer. Fran enters Igor’s stomach via his nostril, and the adventures that transpire are hilarious. Today’s readers are inundated with technology, so the impact of imagined innovations in technology with large doses of humor and copious illustrations in pen, ink, and watercolor add up to kid’s science fiction at its most accessible. Benton is truly ingenious as he slips in the scientific method, analytical reasoning, and even media literacy messages into a very funny and believable story with imaginary technologies that are scientifically plausible. The framework established by Benton in the Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist series is reasonable and coherent formula for scientific fun and imaginative exploration, and Frantastic Voyage is an exemplar of Benton’s oeuvre. ( )

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