Benjamin Franklin: Huge Pain in my...
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Dear Mr. Franklin, First of all, let me just say that this Assignment is Stupid. You are Dead. Why am I writing a letter to Some dead guy I've never even met? This is the start to a most unlikely pen pal relationship between thirteen-year-old Franklin Isaac Saturday (Ike) and Benjamin Franklin. Before the fateful extra credit assignment that started it all, Ike's life was pretty normal. He was avoiding the popularity contests of middle school, crushing hard on Clare Wanzandae and trying not roll his eyes at his stepfather, Dirk-the-Jerk's lame jokes. But all that changes when, in a successful effort to make Claire Wanzandae laugh, Ike mails his homework assignment to Ben Franklin???and he writes back. Soon, things go awry. After Ike has an embarrassing moment of epic proportions in front of Claire involving a playground, non-alcoholic beer, and a lot of kettle corn, Ike decides he needs to find a way to win Claire back. With some help from his new friend, B-Fizzle, can Ike get the girl and make his mark in history?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Zweibel (Our Tree Named Steve) and Mansbach (Go the F*** to Sleep) blend bathroom humor, postal time travel, and the indignities of seventh grade in this (mostly) epistolary novel. As part of a class assignment, Franklin "Ike" Saturday writes a letter to his namesake, Benjamin Franklin. Reverent, he is not. Calling Franklin a "stringy-haired old windbag," Ike goes on to say the Founding Father must have been drunk when he wrote "A stitch in time saves nine," before sharing a friend's recipe for Jungle Juice. Needless to say, Ike is shocked to receive a letter from Franklin in return, and he is even more surprised to hear that the man had many troubles of his own, whether it's being overshadowed by his fellow Founding Fathers or having "ample girth in areas where less would have sufficed, and a dearth in others." Wink, wink. It's clear that Ike is a good, well-meaning kid at heart, but readers will need an appetite for crass jokes, beer-stealing episodes, and vomiting on crushes to see it. Ages 10 14.
