She enjoyed playing softball with the other children – though she thought a giant squid eye-ball or a skull for a ball would be more interesting. School doesn’t go quite like Franny expected and she missed Chompolina – who now has glitter and a unicorn – and thought her sandwich was squishy and boring. But Franny still rubs her hands together in a mad-scientist way. Her mother is amazed by Franny’s request for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

During recess Franny is about to offer one of her live bats for the softball game when she discovers that there’s more than one kind of “bat.”įranny goes home and examines her notes then whips up a concoction to transform herself into … a nice kid. Lunch is a challenge too since all the children have white bread sandwiches instead of Franny’s shish kebabs, casseroles and stews. Her homemade dolls, Chompolina and Oozette, aren’t like the other girls’ dolls. “Think of it as an experiment.” An experiment is the one thing Franny can’t resist.īut Franny’s efforts to fit in just aren’t working. Miss Shelly does know how to motivate Franny to try and make friends. Franny likes her teacher Miss Shelly, even if Franny thinks Miss Shelly would look better with a white streak in her hair and Miss Shelly doesn’t really believe it when Franny says she’s a mad scientist.

The other students don’t know what to think of Franny, who wants to be friends, but who is so different. Since Franny and her family just moved to Daffodil Street, Franny is new in her school class. Oh, and a tarantula, a snake, and a flying piranha. “What’s not to like?” Franny has other amazing things in her room such as bubbling beakers and buzzing electrical gizmos she made herself.

“They’re like rats with pterodactyl wings,” she’d say. Her mother can’t understand where all the bats in Franny’s room keep coming from but Franny likes them. That’s Franny’s room and she likes it dark and scary. It’s bright and cheery except for a room with a round window at the top. Her daughter is still young though so who knows what she’ll be up to in ten years!įranny and her family live in a cutely painted house on Daffodil Street. Her daughter loves them so much that she was crushed when she discovered that she couldn’t make her own monster. Jayne B Reviews childrens-books / Scientist / Simon & Schuster 9 CommentsĪ good friend of mine steered me in the direction of the Franny K. OctoREVIEW: Franny K Stein – Lunch Walks Among Us by Jim Benton

Jim benton lunch walks among us