Frank Einstein and the Electro-Finger

Jon Scieszka's Frank Einstein and the Electro-Finger is a fizzing science adventure for 8 year olds about a boy inventor who wants to give his whole town free power.

What happens

This is the second Frank Einstein book, and it opens with Frank zapping his best mate Watson on the nose. It's static electricity, lightning on a very small scale. Watson is not impressed.

Frank lives with Grampa Al, who soon comes crashing through the lab roof while putting up a windmill. The town's power company is under new owners and prices are going sky-high. So Frank decides to go one better than a windmill. Power with no wires at all, pulled out of the Earth itself and fired from a metal glove with one pointing finger.

Meanwhile his classmate T. Edison, a kid with a bow tie and a very bad haircut, is knocking down every other power station in town. He wants to be the only one selling electricity in Midville. His sidekick is Mr Chimp, a chimpanzee in pinstriped trousers (and quite clearly the brains of the pair).

Then there are Klink and Klank, the two robots who help out in Frank's lab. Klink is dry and sensible. Klank tells terrible jokes and wants to hug everyone. Who wouldn't want a robot like that in their kitchen?

It's a very funny book, but there's a LOT of real science tucked into it. Static, magnets, Newton's three laws, how a solar panel works. Plenty of it is stuff your reader could try at home, like a balloon rubbed on your hair picking up pepper, or a charged spoon bending a trickle of tap water.

The chapters flip between Frank's lab and Edison's latest wrecking job, so something is always being built or smashed. When Frank finally shows off his invention at the town's movie night, things go badly wrong and the whole of Midville turns against him. Now Frank has to find a way to show everyone his invention is safe.

Any child who takes things apart to see how they work will feel right at home here. It's also great for anyone who loves a baddie they can boo.

What to read next

Klink and Klank came to life in the first book, and Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor is in the library too. It starts with a thunderstorm, a robot with a toaster for a head and a plan to win a science prize.