Franny K. Stein 7 – The Frandidate

Jim Benton's The Frandidate is a Franny K. Stein story for 7 year olds about a class election, a very odd costume and a mad scientist who REALLY wants to win.

What happens

Franny has never fancied taking over the world. It just seems wrong somehow. But when Miss Shelly says the class is electing a president, Franny spots a loophole. If people vote for you, you aren't really taking anything, are you?

Her campaign gets off to a rocky start. Percy talks about the playground and Alexandra talks about less homework, and the class cheers. Franny talks about exploding chalk. Nobody cheers.

So she tries giving them everything they like at once. Kittens, clowns, puppies, cake, all blasted together in her Atomic Combiner. The result coughs up a puppy in front of the whole class (and the whole class runs screaming).

Her next idea is cleverer and a lot creepier. It's a stretchy grey suit made from dog, parrot and chameleon DNA, plus a bit of old carpet, because carpets are experts on where people stand. Whoever looks at it sees exactly what they'd most like to see.

It works a bit too well. Franny wins the class over in a landslide, and then she starts wondering about the whole country. And the suit begins promising things all by itself. Everybody gets a unicorn!

The jokes work on two levels. Kids will love the gross bits and the Steiny Heiny Ray, which makes everybody's bottom too big to get out of their chair. Grown-ups reading along will enjoy the python DNA that gives the suit "a strong grasp of the issues".

There's one properly tense stretch near the end. The suit squeezes tighter and tighter until Franny can hardly breathe, and she feels as if she's been swallowed. If your reader hates the idea of being trapped, you might want to be close by for that bit.

It's an American book, so it's Mom and soccer and the President of the United States. That might mean a quick chat about how elections work here, which isn't a bad thing! It's a lovely one for talking about why people say what voters want to hear, and about owning up when you've done something wrong.

It's book seven in the series (the list at the back says so), but it explains everything your reader needs, so jumping in here is fine.

What to read next

If they like watching Franny try to win her classmates over, go right back to Lunch Walks Among Us. There she's new at school, and she brews a potion to turn herself into the sort of sweet little girl she thinks the others want.