DK Biography: Benjamin Franklin: A Photographic Story of a Life

DK Biography

by D.K. Publishing

Filled with archival photographs and amazing fact boxes, this groundbreaking series introduces young readers to some of history's most interesting and influential characters. DK Benjamin Franklin tells the story of the famous statesman's remarkable life, from his early childhood and upbringing through his scientific experiments, his politically active years in the U.S. and France, to his death and legacy. Supports the Common Core State Standards.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2007

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Grace Pooler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benjamin Franklin is a very well done and comprehensive novel on his life. It also provides a nice background on the Revolutionary War. This novel does a great job encompassing all of his different professions. I would definitely recommend this book if you are interested in Benjamin Franklin or the
Revolutionary War!

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main Book Report
Biography, Benjamin Franklin by Stephen Krensky. The author's goal is to tell the story Benjamin
Franklin beginning from when he was born in Boston Massachusetts 1706 and all the thing he did and invented to when he died in 1790.

[David Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Krensky's biography of Benjamin Franklin is both condensed and comprehensive at the same time, which is impressive for a biography. The 128-page biography follows Franklin from childhood through adulthood and introduces the reader to some of his contemporaries. Sprinkled about in appropriate places there are brief passages about Issac Newton, King George, Paul Revere, and the Free Masons all other famous contemporaries, some who influenced Franklin’s decisions and actions.
The intended audience for the book is young readers 4th grade through middle school. The text is not very complex and even some unfamiliar vocabulary is explained in greater detail in the marginal information, photographs, or captions. The back of the book even includes a condensed timeline which provides a snapshot of key events throughout Franklin’s life.

The illustrations vary from oil paintings from the time-period, photographs, lithographs, historical documents, and museum exhibits. The variety of visual information alone would make it hard not to find something of interest in this book about Franklin’s life.

This book even includes all the elements of non-fiction text such as table of contents, index, and reference page. It would be a great resource for any elementary or middle school research project on Benjamin Franklin. The added element of the reference page could help direct the student to other scholarly sources as well

[Nancy Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read, informative and well writteb

[KazuChris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great start for readers who want to learn about the life of Ben Franklin. Now I'm going to read his perspective of these events in his autobigraphy.

[Ben Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benjamin Franklin born January 17,1706 was a very talented man being an author, publisher, philosopher, scientist, and diplomat. Being the eighth child in the Franklin family he was one of many children that belonged to the Franklin family. As he progressed and matured in his childhood he later found work at his older brother’s printing shop, but one day Franklin had ran away to Philadelphia in order to seek a fortune. As a merchant he worked with Denham who later fell ill and died. This left Franklin without a job, so he had started his own printing shop which had become a hassle because of pay, and because of the struggles with his company and others. Furthermore, this caused Franklin to become an inventor which he enjoyed studying electricity. Later as Franklin gets older you can find out more accomplishments from all of his contributions to society as you read on. I would suggest this book to an eighth or ninth grader who is curious about Benjamin Franklin’s life story or wants to learn about different jobs that the world has to offer.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a quick read (probably 2 hours total) and very informative. I enjoyed the overview of such a long and full life. It is a book intended for youth, so they left out most of the controversial stuff, I'd like to do some more research on that on my own. I really loved the emphasis on self education. Benjamin Franklin was a working class man who just went out and seized the world through his diligence and hard work.

Some of the modern view of the founding fathers of America is that they were privileged elitists who wanted the country for themselves. Benjamin Franklin's life and works really contradicts that account of history.

[Tavaris Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Book is tremendously good and very supportive on details. I relly enjoyed the book. its nice to know how he was smarter then his older brother ,and has worked in a family business with his father. This book really caputured my attention and gae me a wery good image in my head,certainy when sailed out on his own to Peenslyvania and became a worker for a man that didin't really know about his own business,b?c it connected veery well with the image in my head insted of skipping beats.I really feel like this book connected to my life b/c he has traveled to differnt parts of this world and I wanna do the same.I would really enjoy reading another book by:Stephen Krensky.

[Takuya Kitaura · Rating 4 out of 5]

DK Biography level unknown
Time 6/6 50 minutes 6/8 30 minutes
7 word summary Benjamin-Boston-copy shop-went-Paris-discovered-a lightning rod
Discussion question
Benjamin tried to do new things such as science. Then he discovered.

Have you ever tried to do anything on your own?

Yes, I have. I often do anything with my friend. However, sometimes I must do anything on my own. I tried to take a official approval on my own. Now I am planning to take German test.

I read biography for the first time. This book is comfortable to read. I learned world history. Therefore I lIke these kinds of books.

[Alex D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book Benjamin Franklin by Stephen Krensky. The book is about Franklin's childhood, his printing days, being an u.s diplomat, and an inventor. The biography explains his education, inventions of electricity, and the fireplace stove. Also his contributions to the continental Congress.

I liked how they go in to detail about his inventions. I liked how they explained the war and how he helped in the revolutionary war. It was hard to understand some parts of the book, because of the high vocabulary.

I would recommend this book to anyone that is excited to read about Ben Franklin and the revolutionary war.

[Vida · Rating 3 out of 5]

The DK Biography series is a treat. I now remember aspects about Ben Franklin's life and background that I had forgotten. I read his biography about 15 years ago, but that is a long time to not read anything about this special man. I remembered how much I admired him and his revolutionary spirit. Stephen Krensky does a fine job sorting through the many significant aspects of Franklin's life. The paintings and photographs of Franklin and his family and authentic relics from his era add depth. I highly recommend this for the reluctant non-fiction junior high and senior high student.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed learning about Benjamin Franklin. He was undeterred as he tried new scientific experiments and discoveries and with helping form our nation. He was very down to Earth and realistic about the problems each nation was facing during this period of history. This book didn't explain much about his home life and I would have liked to learn more about that part of his life, however, as far as our country is concerned he was a great leader and I feel indebted to him for his contribution.

[Katieb (MundieMoms) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those great books that younger kids can read that is full of facts and stories about one of our fonding fore fathers. I've been trying to grow both my collection of books and ones for the kids for when they start reading. I just can't seem to get enough about our fonding forefathers. They're amazing men!

[Marcia First · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Biography

This book gives a good overview of Benjamin Franklin's life. It especially focuses on his strong work ethic and curiousity. He is portrayed as an man of remarkable intellegence who continuously sought to answer the questions he had about the world - a fascinating person. This whetted my appetite for reading more about Benjamin Franklin.

[Janel G. B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I would despise reading this with fourth graders, as the text is very, very complex and the background knowledge required is immense, but it was actually quite an enjoyable read. Made me want to watch 1776 again and sing along with ol Franklin... such a cool guy!

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a good read to start an exploration of this remarkable man. However, it concentrated more on the political side of his achievements and glossed over many of his more important inventions, many of which we still use today.

[Andy Ly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is all about Benjamin Franklin, it gives very supportive details and describes how Benjamin work his way as a president!

[Kenneth Flusche · Rating 5 out of 5]

excelant elementary school biography

[Yahya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great biography about Benjamin Franklin I learned many new things about Franklin that I didn't know before.

[ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have to read this book for a book report or i wouldn't be reading it.

[Caroline]

It was very fun and informational.