about the Book
Is it cheating if you get the real Benjamin Franklin to help you win the top prize in the school science fair?
You see, Ben Franklin never died!
Two hundred years ago, the famed statesman/ inventor had himself put in suspended animation in a special chamber he invented. A secret organization was supposed to hide and protect the chamber until the nation needed Ben’s help and he could be re-animated. But his last keeper died without leaving a successor, and a big jolt of lightning unexpectedly brought Ben back to the world of living.
In the cellar of his mother’s run-down boarding house, super science nerd Victor discovers the greenish Ben in a hidden secret laboratory. Promising to help Ben find other members of the secret order, Victor hopes Ben will lend a hand with his volcano science project.
Out of touch for two hundred years, Ben is a social klutz. Not only that, if he doesn’t get regular electrical jolts, he turns into a zombie, and too much juice turns him into a raging Franklinstein!
Victor, who lives life according to probabilities, is calculating the odds. His volcano project has a 73% chance of winning the science fair prize, but predicting what Ben will do next is a little more daunting!
about the authors
Matthew McElligott and Larry Tuxbury have been best buddies since seventh grade. They both liked the same books (that was the year Larry discovered Frankenstein) and they often finished each other’s sentences.
Now, thirty years later, these two friends have discovered they work very well together writing children’s books… and they still finish each other’s sentences.
When Matt’s son was young, he kept mixing Franklin the turtle with Frankenstein, coming up with Franklinstein. All Matt could see was Ben Franklin as a neck-bolted monster running amok! The concept for the book was born.
Matt grew up outside Albany, New York, and he has been drawing since he was little. He still lives close by in Selkirk with his wife Christy (who is a web designer), their son, and two horses, about a dozen chickens, a rabbit, some cats, some fish, and a dog.
Matthew went to Alfred University and graduate school in Buffalo. Today he is a writer and illustrator, as well as a graphic design teacher at Sage College.
Sources:
Author website
Benjamin Franklinstein series website
Author interview : Times Union
Author interview : Wired, GeekDad
Also by Matthew McElligott:
Benjamin Franklinstein Meets the Fright Brothers (Benjamin Franklinstein, Book 2). Putnam Publishing. 2011.
Larry Tuxbury lives in Green Island, New York and teaches Language Arts in Farnsworth Middle School. He earned his teaching certificate from the State University of New York in Binghamton. Besides writing, Larry would love to nap, like Benjamin Franklinstein, for 200 years!
Best friends since middle school. Matthew McElligott and Larry Tuxbury liked the same books and they often finished each other’s sentences. Now, thirty years later, these two witty friends discovered they both like to write and have fun coming up with really over-the- top stories mixing history with science, children’s horror with comedy, while throwing in all sorts of madcap adventure…that, and well, they still finish each other’s sentences!
Now that Matt and Larry have a couple of books under their belt, they plan on telling us even more about the secret society and about another inventor that went through suspended animation!
Sources:
Benjamin Franklinstein series website
Author interview : Times Union
Author interview : Wired, GeekDad
Also by Larry Tuxbury:
Benjamin Franklinstein Meets the Fright Brothers (Benjamin Franklinstein, Book 2). Putnam Publishing. 2011.
read more!
Benjamin Franklinstein Meets the Fright Brothers (Book 2) by Matthew McElligott
Benjamin Franklinstein and his two friends find themselves involved in an investigation of the Right Brothers’ suspicious offer to fix all of the bikes in Philadelphia. They also try to discover why there are vampires stalking its streets.
Lunch Walks Among Us (Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist) by Jim Benton
Franny K. Stein is a mad scientist who prefers all things spooky and creepy. When she has trouble making friends at her new school she experiments with fitting in and comes up with a potion that turns her into a sweet-looking girl in a frilly dress. It works until a monster erupts from a trash can, and Franny decides to come up with a monster of her own.
Whales on Stilts! (Pals in Peril Tale) by M.T. Anderson
Racing against the clock, Lily, Katie and Jasper must foil the plot cooked up by Lily’s father’s conniving boss. Larry, a whale-human hybrid, is a mad scientist that will stop at nothing to conquer the world using an army of whales, stilts, lasers, and mind control! It is up to Lily and her buddies to stop him.