This book is a truthful narrative about Benjamin Franklin. The title is amazing because it hooks the reader into the story. The author, Schanzer, does a great job explaining the various inventions that Ben Franklin made. In the beginning, Schanzer asks the reader how they think that he stole the lightening, which gets the reader thinking as they are reading. I also really like this book because it describes the inventions and then what the people who make those are called. For instance, Schanzer tells the reader what an electrician does. For so many reasons, this is an excellent book. I think that Schanzer does a great job giving narrative background for who Ben Franklin does and then at the end of the book, explains how he "stole" the lightening, giving background to the invention of the lightening rod. The pedagogy for this lesson that could be included could be space science and earth science. ( )

The story "How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning" is a great book that tells the story of Ben Franklin and many of his inventions growing up. The story tells us that his first invention was when he was only eleven. I think this a great message to tell students because it tells them that even at a young age they can do great things. It tells us about how much of an impact Ben Franklin's inventions had on people, especially the electricity and the light bulb. I really enjoyed this book because it gave a backstory to Ben Franklin's life as well as telling us about his success. I would read this to my class. ( )

Fun but imprecise. ( )

LET THEIR BE LIGHTning !!!!!!!!!!

Summary:
Ben Franklin was a musician, a printer, a cartoonist, a politician, a soldier, a shopkeeper, and a world traveler. Ben even helped write the Declarations of Independence AND the Constitution of the U.S. !!! Ben was a very busy man.
Ben was a very helpful guy. He created and invented things to make his town a better place such as the first library which rented out books, the first post office which delivered mail to people's houses, and a fire department! He wrote books about when the next eclipse was going to happen along with books about what time of the year was best to plant certain crops.
Ben Franklin did many, many things to improve the quality of life in America, but one of the most important things he did was figuring out how electricity worked by flying a kite during a storm. This is how Ben stole lightning out of the sky.

About the book:
The end-papers have images of Ben Franklin's original drawings which show many different ideas. (Found in The Author's Note). This book also includes more facts about Ben and a list of some of his scientific work on the last pages in the Author's Note. ( )

Summary: A story about the way Ben Franklin discovers electricity. This tall tale explains how Franklin "stole the lightning from the sky." It details all of the inventions Franklin made before he discovered electricity and the importance of his discoveries to keeping people safe.

Personal Reflection: Cute, cute story. There were several inventions that I had forgotten that Franklin was associated with.

Classroom Extension:
1. Have the students make a list of all of the items they can find in the classroom that uses electricity.

2. Have the children decorate kites to fly,