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What Members Thought
I'm wavering between 4 and 5 stars on this one. Russell Freedman does his usual impeccable job of conducting thorough research and then presenting interesting anecdotes from the life of his subject. The stories and information go down smoothly because of the author's always engaging storytelling, but also because there is so much to tell. By anyone's account, Ben Franklin lived a full life as a writer, printer, statesman, inventor, and scientist. Young readers will find the details about his for
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How could I possibly have anything bad to say about a nonfiction work by Russell Freedman? As usual Freedman did the research and came up with an interesting, readable, and even at times surprising biography of Ben Franklin. I am not sure how many biographies of Ben Franklin I have in my library but I can make room for this one. With the advent of Common Core students will be asked to be more thorough in their reading and critiques. Students can take this biography and compare and contrast to ot
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It's Russell Freedman...this man could make a biography of a stump interesting. Not that Ben Franklin was boring by any stretch of the imagination. Reading this was a constant reminder of oh yeah...he did that! and that! and that! Libraries! Fire departments! Hospitals! Theories of electricty! Diplomacy!...all with only two year of formal schooling! Great introductary biography of Franklin.
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Another great bio about one of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. This book has a nice balance of Franklin's early and later years. Many famous paintings are included as visuals and text is great for reports or for nonfiction pleasure reading for grades 5-8.
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Brilliant overview of Ben Franklin's life and work. Although I have read many books about Franklin, I learned new tidbits about his life--like his estranged relationship with his son, William, who was a Loyalist.
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I thought this was a good narrative about Ben's life, though it has none of the more controversial aspects of his life and character.
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My favorite Founding Father.
I enjoyed this well written biography, though kids won't read it. ...more
I enjoyed this well written biography, though kids won't read it. ...more
Jul 23, 2013
June
marked it as to-read
Jan 03, 2014
Angie
marked it as to-read
