What’s the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? By Jean Fritz

Rating: My bookshelf

Reading Level: Early Elementary, Mid-Elementary, Late Elementary

This biography positions Ben Franklin as an innovative, enterprising guy with lots of ideas.

Possible concerns:

• Submitting to authority. He doesn’t want to be an apprentice, because he needs to sign away devotion and servitude to his master for several years. He eventually agrees to be an apprentice for his brother, but really struggles with submission and eventually runs away.
• Tragic Drowning. The first chapter mentions how Ben Franklin had siblings who drowned, one at sea and the other in barrel of soap suds . The mention of this is pictured below for you to decide for yourself if it is ok.

Things I liked:

• Passion for Reading. His passion for reading sets a good example about how reading can help us.
• Nonpartisian service. He served our country well, and I don’t sense a lot of partisanship in the book.
• Learning from Failures. I like how the book also talks about some of his failures. For example, he went to England to try to prevent the revolutionary war using words and conversation before resorting to violence. Although he was unsuccessful, and the war happened, I think this is still a good lesson that we can fail in some areas of our aspirations and still serve well and be a hero in other areas.

I have no major concerns, and I think the good outweighs the bad enough for me to allow this one on my bookshelf.