Benjamin Franklin was a statesman, author, wit, inventor, printer, writer, and more – a true Renaissance man. His keen observations and clever innovations still impact us today. In this “Special Appearance Video,” viewers briefly meet the book’s author/illustrator, Gene Barretta, and learn about his interest in Franklin. The narrator then takes viewers on a voyage of discovery, pointing out modern conveniences that may have largely resulted from Franklin’s work. The extensive list includes not only inventions such as odometers and eyeglasses, but also public services like post offices and libraries, and ideas such as daylight saving time, the use of the gulf stream for more efficient shipping, and the importance of vitamin C in the diet. The narration is brisk and interesting. Barretta’s bright and detailed watercolor cartoon illustrations are scanned iconographically and simply animated. Some additional art has been created for this production. There are many compare and contrast opportunities here, and viewers are encouraged to consider how Franklin’s ideas might be modified for future use. This well-done production is a good introduction to an important figure in American history.

The extraordinary sense of Franklin as a severely temporally displaced person gives Gene Barretta’s “Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin” it’s power to surprise and delight. It does not bother with its subject’s life and times. It has enough to do simply presenting – with charming illustrations – the innovations, oddities and civilizational necessities that kept fizzing and popping from Franklin’s restless brain. Many exist today, like public libraries, swim fins, odometers and daylight saving time. Some are museum pieces, like the armonica (a musical instrument that produces sweet, haunting tones when wet fingers are placed on its spinning glass bowls). There are more than enough to dazzle any young reader, and to leave her wanting to know more about this curious, compelling 300-year-old-man.

“The jacket portrait of a serene, grandfatherly Ben Franklin belies his energy and myriad contributions, such as inventing the lightning rod, charting the Gulf Stream, and helping to shape the Declaration of Independence. Inside, however, the book covers twenty-two of his inventions, first by showing their use in today’s world ( a pedestrian looks down through his bifocals to read a wanted poster and then looks up to identify the criminal across the street) and second by explaining Franklin’s role in their development (he designed bifocals to avoid switching between two pairs of glasses). By organizing the contents in a compare/contrast pattern between “Now” and “Ben,” Barretta leads readers from what they do know to what they probably don’t. “Now we understand the benefits of vitamin C. Ben was an early promoter of eating citrus fruits to help prevent a disease called scurvy.” “Now” appears on the left page, “Ben” appears on the right, visually reversing a traditional timeline but conceptually reinforcing the here and now before introducing the long ago. Read this one aloud; the busy cartoon illustrations might distract beginning readers, but they offer plenty for listeners to contemplate.

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“Now and then, we think about Ben,” begins Barretta’s (On Top of Spaghetti) lighthearted and enlightening picture-book biography. “It was as if Ben could see into the future. Almost everything he created is still around today.” The book’s format echoes its title: the left-hand side of each spread highlights images and explanations of contemporary versions of Franklin’s inventions (“Now”), while the facing page reveals the fellow at work on his innovations (“Ben”). Among the wide-ranging inventions, discoveries and designs included are bifocals, electricity, swimming fins, the benefits of Vitamin C, the Pennsylvania Fireplace (later renamed the Franklin stove) and the odometer (“Ben invented the odometer when he was postmaster general so he could measure his postal routes”). Barretta also mentions Franklin’s pivotal role in establishing the country’s first library, hospital, post office, and fire and sanitation departments, and in creating the Constitution and other key documents. The juxtaposition of present and past effectively reinforces the continued relevance of Franklin’s inventions and underscores the extraordinary range and depth of his ingenuity and practicality. With its breezy format and succinct text, the book delivers facts in a assuredly kid-friendly style. The playful watercolor cartoons, often divided into panels, help to vary the pacing. A concluding futuristic spread envisions even further updated variations on Franklin’s inventions.

“As librarians filter the inevitable stream of new children’s books commemorating the tricentennial of Franklin’s birth, they might keep in mind readers too young to know or care much about the Founder’s role as diplomat, statesman, disillusioned father, and sometimes randy raconteur. Here’s the title just for them, focusing on the scientist and master tinkerer, whose innovations have immediate meaning for children today. Most spreads highlight a single invention – bifocal lenses, political cartoons in the newspapers, lightning rods, long-armed “grabbers,” swim fins, vitamin C dosing, odometers, second hands on clocks – and in a few sentences compare contemporary experience with that of Franklin’s time. Pictures are light- hearted and cartoonish, tinted in a free-for-all David Catrow palette but with a bit more compositional formality. There are no notes or reading suggestions, but they probably won’t be missed by those who need a speedy, practical introduction to a figure who’s bound to be much in the national consciousness this year.

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An authorial debut for illustrator Barretta, Now & Ben aims at the youngest readers, limiting its purview to Franklin as a slightly tubby, jolly inventor and innovator. Each left-hand page describes and illustrates one of Franklin’s contributions as we know it (“Now…our newspapers are filled with illustrations”); the opposite page goes back in time to reveal the Franklin connection (“Ben…was the first to print a political cartoon in America”). Most young children won’t grasp the play on the phrase now and then but will zero in instead on the well-chosen examples, which include bifocals and lightning rods as well as lesser-known notions (a rocking chair that churned butter!), all appealingly rendered in Barretta’s relaxed, cartoon-like watercolors. This will be a punchy read-aloud to lighten up American history units, though teachers wanting more details will need to look elsewhere as the book’s biographical context is scattershot and no end matter is provided.

-Jennifer Mattson