A rousing biography from Michael J. Rosen and Matt Tavares reveals how
Benjamin Franklin's boyhood shaped his amazingly multifaceted life.
Young Benjamin Franklin wants to be a sailor, but his father won't hear
of it. The other trades he tries -- candle maker, joiner, boot closer,
turner -- bore him through and through. Curious and inventive, Ben
prefers to read, swim, fly his kite, and fly his kite while swimming.
But each time he fails to find a profession, he takes some important bit
of knowledge with him. That tendency is exactly what leads him to become
the astonishingly versatile genius we remember today. Inspired by The
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Michael J. Rosen's wry tale
captures Ben's spirit in evocative yet playful language, while
illustrations by Matt Tavares follow Ben from the workbench to the water
in vivid detail. A love story to the value of variety, A Ben of All
Trades sheds light on an unconventional path to greatness and humanizes
a towering figure in American history.