Attack of the 50-FT. Cupid (Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist #2)

by Jim Benton

Overview

LESS MUSH...
MORE CRUSH!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689862960
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	12/28/2004
Series:	Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist Series , #2
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	227,815
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Jim Benton is the New York Times bestselling writer of the Dear Dumb Diary series and a cartoonist whose unique brand of humor has been seen on toys, television, T-shirts, greeting cards, and even underwear. Franny K. Stein is the first character he’s created especially for young children. A husband and father of two, he lives in Michigan, where he works in a studio that really and truly does have creepy stuff in it.

Read an Excerpt

Attack of the 50-Ft. Cupid

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By Jim Benton

Aladdin Paperbacks

Copyright © 2005 Jim Benton
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0689862962

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Excerpt

Chapter One: Franny's House

The Stein family lived in a pretty pink house with lovely purple shutters down at the end of Daffodil Street. Everything about the house was bright and cheery. Everything, that is, except the bedroom behind the tiny, round upstairs window.

This was Franny's bedroom, and she loved it more than anyplace else in the whole world, because this was where she came up with some of the most exciting new ideas in mad science.

But, as is often case for mad scientists, it was impossible to get her friends and family to take her work seriously.

Like when Franny presented her recently perfected Personal Cow to her father.

"Hey, Dad. Have a look at this. I genetically engineered a real cow for the portability that today's baby-on-the-go demands. See? Fresh milk anywhere."

"That's nice, Franny," he said without even looking up from his newspaper.

Or when Franny tried to show off her just-debugged Biggerizer to her little brother, Freddy.

"One blast from this device can make things hundreds of times bigger," Franny declared proudly.

"Can you use it in reverse and make your mouth smaller?" Freddy asked.

Franny answered, "It doesn't have a reverse setting. It only makes things bigger, but that's not a bad idea...." Before she could finish, he leapt on his skateboard and, with one swift push, rocketed out of sight.

Or when Franny called Percy, one of her new friends from school, to announce her new Manifester. "You put a picture of something in front of it, flip the switch, and - ZAP! - it creates a real three-dimensional reproduction of it."

"Did you ever put ketchup on corn chips?" Percy asked witlessly.

Franny blinked. "Ketchup on corn chips? Did you hear a single word I said, Percy? The Manifester actually makes real things from pictures and pictures from real things. It's total madness."

"I like corn chips," he said, and Franny hung up the phone.

Franny's mom had been watching and she felt bad for Franny.

She might not have chosen to have a mad scientist for a daughter, but that's what Franny was.

And since that's what Franny was, her mom had spent a lot of time trying to learn about mad scientists.

One of the things she learned was this: Mad scientists need assistants to whom they can show their tiny cows, weird devices, and crazy gizmos, assistants who were always excited and who always listened.

Continues...

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Excerpted from Attack of the 50-Ft. Cupid by Jim Benton Copyright © 2005 by Jim Benton.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

CONTENTS

1. Franny's House

2. Fleas and Thank You

3. Good Whelp Is Hard to Find

4. Life's Ruff

5. What Could Be Verse?

6. Franny's Valentine-Poem Generator

7. Drawing Conclusions

8. Cupid Is as Cupid Does

9. Pink. Cute. I'm Going to Be Sick.

10. Working Like a Dog

11. That's the Way the Ball Bounces

12. Hey Meister, Watch the Keister

13. The Holiday Is Upon Us

14. Love Hurts

15. Love Is a Battlefield

16. The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

17. Mom Always Says to Wear Your Helmet (When You Become Gigantic and Skateboard on a School Bus)

18. Nope. Not Tacos.

19. It's Mad Science Time

20. Udder Madness

21. LGMS Seeks ULD (Little Girl Mad Scientist Seeks Ugly Little Dog)

22. It Mutts Be Love

23. And That's That

Editorial Reviews

National Enquirer Smart, confident, and totally PUNK!

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books This has the glib, kid-appealing insouciance of Captain Underpants with an intelligence all its own.

From the Publisher

Attack of the 50-ft. Cupid picks up where Lunch Walks Among Us left off in the Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist, series by Jim Benton. In this installment, Franny gets a lab assistant courtesy of her mother. Franny also learns about giving valentines and what it means to feel love (for her new pet at least)-but not before an all-out battle royal with Cupid, brought to life and made grossly enormous by science-gone-wrong. The book also includes a twisted valentine generator and removable cardboard valentines. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 2-6-The lovable, heroic mad scientist is back for her second adventure, and her brain is so filled with science that she doesn't know about Valentine's Day traditions. Even with the help of Igor, her new lab assistant (actually, he is part Lab, part beagle, part shepherd, etc.), her attempts to create valentines result in disaster. Then, a real valentine card comes to life, and is "biggerized" to huge, and it takes a superhero to save the school bus full of children from the giant Cupid. Franny biggerizes herself, rides the bus like a skateboard, and saves the day. Igor turns out to be more than a useless mutt, and he and Franny set things right. Benton's cartoon illustrations and writing style will draw fans of Dav Pilkey's "Ricky Ricotta" and "Captain Underpants" series (Scholastic). Fast paced and very funny, this book is likely to fly off the shelves faster than a giant Cupid shoots an arrow.-Sharon R. Pearce, Chippewa Elementary School, Bensenville, IL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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