Buy from Amazon.com

Rate this Book

Sonderbooks 105
     Previous Book
     Next Book

Nonfiction
Fiction
Young Adult Fiction
Children's Nonfiction
Children's Fiction
    Beginning Chapter Books
        Previous Book
        Next Book
Picture Books

2005 Stand-outs
2004 Stand-outs
2003 Stand-outs
2002 Stand-outs
2001 Stand-outs

Five-Star Books
Four-Star Books
Old Favorites
Back Issues
List of Reviews by Title
List of Reviews by Author

Why Read?
Children and Books
Links For Book Lovers
Book Discussion Forum

About Me
Contact Me
Subscribe
Make a Donation

***Frantastic Voyage

Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist, Book Five

by Jim Benton

Reviewed March 5, 2006.
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, New York, 2006.  103 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (JF BEN).

The Franny K. Stein books never fail to make me smile.  They are simple and short, with lots of cartoon pictures, and are perfect for kids just beginning chapter books.  However, they’re funny enough to even entertain adults.

In Frantastic Voyage, a spoof of the old classic Fantastic Voyage,  Franny has to make herself tiny to travel inside her lab assistant Igor.  (Well, he’s not a pure lab.  He’s also “part poodle, part Chihuahua, part beagle, part spaniel, part shepherd, and possibly part some kind of weasly thing that probably wasn’t even a dog.”)  She needs to deactivate the Doomsday Device that he accidentally swallowed.

I love Jim Benton’s sense of humor.  There are some great lines, like:  “You really don’t have that many options when your dog swallows a horrifically devastating explosive and you only have sixty minutes to act.  Ask anybody who’s been in that situation.   They’ll tell you the same thing.”  He’s been consistent, with all five books delightful fun.

<> Reviews of other Franny K. Stein books:
Lunch Walks Among Us
Attack of the 50-ft. Cupid
The Invisible Fran
The Fran That Time Forgot