Beautiful illustrations accompany a sweet story of Benjamin Franklin’s childhood. I love how Ben takes a bit of knowledge from different areas to become the versatile man we know about.

Michael Rosen interprets parts of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography through his own re-telling in a special picture book with luscious illustrations by Matt Tavares. Franklin's voracious appetite for learning underlies the story of Franklin as a boy who only dreams of "going to sea". His father continues to say 'no' and Franklin first apprenticed as a joiner, all day on the job sanding wooden pegs that will be used to "join" furniture. They were long, long days. His next 'job' with a shoemaker did not fare much better. Wanting to discover a good fit for his son who loved books made Franklin's father realize that these ideas were not going to work. Franklin did dutifully try, but his father realized that there was little to gain and sent him to his brother's print shop where his accomplishments began to shine.
During this early childhood story of Franklin, Rosen also includes parts of Franklin's adventures in swimming, He invented paddles that attached to the hands to make the swimming stroke help him go faster. and flew a kite on a windy day allowing it to pull him across the bay. The lessons, the experiences continued to add to his knowledge as he applied that learning to new problems, demonstrating the early wisdom of this very wise man in our history. Tavares uses text panels from antique books surrounded by Colonial-era nautical maps showing Franklin’s interest in books and the sea, creating this story for older readers who may not know some of Franklin's early childhood experiences. It's a fascinating book with both author's and illustrator's notes and a bibliography at the end.