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Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

By Robert Byrd

If you’ve only thought of Ben Franklin as a bespectacled white-haired colonist, flying a kite with a key attached, then you and your young reader are in for some ride.

But, I must warn you, just as the virtues espoused and exhibited by Ben included patience, you may need a bit of it as you navigate this book.

It’s lengthy and loaded with facts. But do not let its length deter you or young reader. It’s dense and compels you to delve deeper into the depths of Ben Franklin. But I can tell you that his life is presented in such a way that though it may be non-fiction, it is quite the page turner.

In his Author’s Note, Robert Byrd says to his readers:

                  With a figure as famous as

                  Franklin, there is an abundance

                  of information about his life. I

                  wasn’t going to discover any-

                  thing about him that wasn’t

                  already known, so I had to pick

                  and choose what I thought

                  was informative and visually

                  interesting…..I tried to present

                  events in Franklin’s life in the

                  most intriguing, yet respectful

                  way, and also providing excite-

                  ment and graphic variation with

                  each page turn.

Electric Ben is packed with information on Franklin’s hunger for knowledge, and one can feel the excitement as the book delineates and describes the amazing number of hats this man wore in his rich and varied life.

Do not underestimate the worth of the word “packed”, in Robert Byrd’s extraordinary picture book feat in Electric Ben. The art alone is worth the purchase of this picture book.

But, if you have the patience to plumb its depths with your young reader, both of you will come away in awe of this man among men. Are any of his like still around? I wonder.

Robert Byrd has managed to hone from dry historical facts, a Ben Franklin from youth to old age that is real and robust; a flesh and blood person whose authenticity, far-sightedness and insatiable curiosity was very hard to sate. And thank, heavens it wasn’t. For we are the beneficiaries.

You’ll hear of the Leather Apron Men in Boston who were craftsman and:

    Ben would always hold these artisans

    in high regard. They worked hard and

    were very skilled.

Even from the outset, on the front and rear covers of Electric Ben, the reader will find quotes from this innovator with such a keen mind, he was not content to merely grasp  knowledge, but he had a thirst to disseminate it to others.

Perhaps, one might not think sibling rivalry  an essential topic as regards Robert Byrd’s bio on Ben, but it’s there early on…with a brother that happens to be in the same line of work, as a writer and printer.

You can just hear the howls from brother James, eldest of Josiah and Abiah Folger Franklin’s brood of fourteen children.

Ben, as the youngest, was apprenticed to his brother for nine years, at James’ paper called the New England Courant.

It provided Ben writing opportunities as a 16 year-old; some not to older brother’s liking. For he quickly developed a following all his own under the pen name, Silence Dogood.

And James was furious as Silence champions “women’s right to education and criticized everything from bad poetry to Harvard students.” A brotherly brouhaha ensues and Ben leaves with the quote:

             I had already made myself

obnoxious to the governing

party.

Sailing to Philadelphia, brother James saw to it that Ben was “banned in Boston.” And there he thrives. Writing in the Gazette, a paper owned by a friend, it gives Ben a job, but ever a striver, he soon owns the paper.

And this is just the start of a life that included inventions including the lightning rod, Franklin stove, the famous bifocals and the discovery that lightning WAS electricity.

Not satisfied, there is his political participation as one of the Founding Fathers of a new nation and someone that helped write the Declaration of Independence and a framer of the Constitution no less!

Ben was also the United States Ambassador to France with a voracious and consuming knowledge of science, music, mathematics, history and more.

This book prompted me to get a copy of Poor Richard’s Almanac, selling at that time, some 10,000 copies a year, equal to perhaps two million today!

Mr. Byrd has even reprinted a page from the 1733 copy. Here are three quotes from it:

           People who are wrapped up in

          themselves make small packages.

 

Fish and visitors stink in three days.

 

          If you would know the value of money

          try to borrow some.

It was printed for some twenty-five years and made Ben rich, and its readers richer still… in knowledge.

I have to find a copy.

In the meantime, please read Electric Ben by Richard Byrd.

It’s electrifying!

Is it Monday already? Where did the weekend go? Oh I know... taxes. hissssssss

I woke up this morning with a knot the size of Kansas in my back, which makes it pretty hard to do anything more than lay in bed and read all day. (Funny how your body forces you to take a day off once in a while, huh?)

Luckily a while back I stocked up on a few treats. Since I was up anyway making some Tater Tots (hey, its a "sick day", junk food is allowed) I thought I'd might as well blog about them (the treats, not the Tater Tots).

First up is Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!



This book is just charming!

Here's a nice little review of it, before it won the Newbery Medal.
And here is another nice article in the Medieval News blog about Ms. Schlitz and the book.
And Robert Byrd, the illustrator, has a cool slideshow of the books illustrations on his website.
I'd say that if you're into anything Medieval, or like plays, or would just like to read something refreshing, this is a good choice! I'm loving it.


My "read in bed at night" book right now is "The Golden Compass", which I'm aaaaaalmost finished with. I'm glad I bought the whole "His Dark Materials" trilogy so I can just dive right into the next one.



No, I haven't seen the movie. But I've seen enough trailers to have a hard time NOT picturing Nicole Kidman as I'm reading. Oh well.



This next book is more like "work", but its good:



I'd Rather Be in the Studio just says it all doesn't it?
This woman is good. She has a website. She just nails you on all the stuff you don't want to do to get yourself out there. I'm in kind of a "I need a makeover" mode right now and am looking for some guidance. Her advice is more for 'fine' artists than children's book illustrators, but its all good.
Just thought I'd share.

Well, the Tater Tots are done, my back is starting to scream at me from sitting in this chair, so I guess I'd better go. If I can get up... Read the rest of this post

Hey you!

Thought I'd post a couple of nice shots from my local paper, The Lake Placid News. First one is an article written by my bud, Ed Forbes, about my recent trip to Nueva York.

Look at that passion!
And the second piece is an ad placed by the beloved (that's right, beloved) Bookstore Plus.

Are they the best, or are they the best? Two choices. One answer.*

*The answer is B.

For those of you who weren't able to attend the NY Times Great Children's Read this past weekend at Columbia University (you know who you are), here's a snappy (a picture) courtesy of Ed Forbes.

Blah, blah, blah.

The New York Times Great Children's Read Presented by Target (got that memorized?) is next Sunday, October 14th at Columbia University in ol' New York City. And guess who's going to be there reading on the Target stage... well, Julie Andrews Edwards (Mary Poppins) and Cheech Marin (nevermind, kids). But I'll be in there somewhere (4:45 actually) reading The Adventures of Max and Pinky: Best Buds and Superheroes. Afterwards I'll be signing books until 6:00 when a driver will grab me, throw me in a big black Lincoln and bring me to the airport where he'll then shove me into any plane headed north. The event will be fun and free. Fun and fancy free in fact!