Franny K. Stein Mad Scientist: Lunch Walks Among Us by Jim Benton

Franny K. Stein isn't your average little girl. Whereas most little girls like unicorns and playing with their dolls, Franny prefers bats and spiders and bubbling bakers and steaming test tubes. Needless to say, Franny isn't very popular with her classmates when she starts a new school. Most of her classmates fear her. All Franny wants is to fit in.

Miss Shelly, Franny's teacher, suggests that Franny study what the other kids like, kind of like an experiment, so that she can fit in a little better. Franny does her homework and ends up conforming quite well except that she abandons everything that made her Franny.

One day, a Giant Monstrous Fiend emerges from the trashcan composed of old gum, gym shoes, trash. and unstable industrial waste! The worst part is that the monster takes Miss Shelly and heads for the flagpole! Franny to the rescue! She quickly sews together all the lunchmeat from everyone's sandwiches and combines this with some leftover unstable industrial waste resulting in the creation of a Lunch-Meat Creature. The Giant Monstrous Fiend drops Miss Shelly on a stack of white bread slices that Franny assmebled for just such a situation, while the Lunch-Meat Creature pulls the flagpole from the ground and winds up to bat the Giant Monstrous Fiend into the next century! After saving the day, the kids all love Franny just the way she is and she finally feels accepted. Second graders and up will enjoy this series that features illustrations on each page.

Genre: Fantasy


Benton, J. (2003). Franny K. Stein mad scientist: Lunch walks among us. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Judy Moody: Was in Mood. No a Good Mood. A Bad Mood by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Peter Reynolds

Judy Moody is a third grader with an attitude. Set with the task to build a ME collage Judy catalogs her school experiences by the categories she needs to fulfill for her poster such as: secret clubs, favorite pet, the worst thing ever and the funniest thing ever. She has a younger brother named Stink, a best friend named Rocky and a new, unlikely friend in Frank Pearl. A smart girl, Judy aspires to be a doctor when she grows up and she even sends away for a doll to practice her healing skills on, but when Stink causes Hedda-Get-Betta's head to get stuck on its chicken pox face she uses her quick thinking and her stash of "fancy" Band-Aids to cure her patient like she believes her idol, Elizabeth Blackwell, First Woman Doctor, would've done in a similar situation. A humorous story with lots of imagination third grade readers and up will appreciate Judy's attitude and imaginative mind that allows her to travel to China as well as find "moon" rocks.

Genre: Realisitic Fiction

McDonald, M. (2000). Judy Moody. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems

Trixie and Knuffle Bunny are back in this 2008 Caldecott Honor Book! Excited to share her "one-of-a-kind" Knuffle Bunny with her Pre-K class, Trixie and Daddy walk to school only to find that when they get there another girl also has a Knuffle Bunny. The girls are instnat enemies and argue over the correct pronunciation of Knuffle ("Kuh-nuffle," says Trixie, "Nuffle," says Sonja) until their teacher takes the bunnies away. Both girls are relieved when their precious toys are returned at the end of the day and go home to happily eat dinner and go to bed. In the middle of the night, Trixie wakes up and realizes that the she has Sonja's bunny! She wakes Daddy up and insists that they correct this problem, even if it is 2:30 AM! Before he can even get to the phone to place a call to Sonja's dad, the phone is already ringing. The dads make arrangements and meet to exchange bunnies. In the end, Sonja and Trixie find their first best friends in each other, excluding their bunnies of course!

As with Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale this book features hand-drawn ink sketches paired with digital photography and is a great picture book for print awareness. Fans of Knuffle Bunny will enjoy this continuation and readers new to Knuffle Bunny will fall in love with this cute story!

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Willems, M. (2007). Knuffle bunny too: A case of mistaken identity. New York: Hyperion Books for Children.