BENJAMIN FRANKLINSTEIN LIVES!

Nerdy Victor is literally blasted out of his compulsively regimented ways when “Frank Benjamin,” waking from 200 years of suspended animation, moves into a nearby apartment. Being a human battery with electricity-conducting bolts embedded in his neck and veins filled with “harmonic fluid,” Ben—er, Frank—has a tendency to run amok when overcharged or devolve into a zombielike state when the juice runs low—conditions that the authors exploit to hilarious effect as they send young Victor scurrying across Philadelphia after his new neighbor and mentor, discovering a secret lab buried beneath their rundown building and rebuilding his elaborate but derivative science-fair volcano into an experimental one so massively destructive that even Victor is left impressed and proud. Frequent technical diagrams and actual patent drawings add a luster of Real Science to the antics, and 18th-century veneer is provided by Poor Richard's Almanack–style borders and display type. The balance struck between Victor’s methodical approach and Ben’s “we’ll have to trust our instincts, whack away at the problem, and hope for the best” attitude provide some food for thought, too. Expect sequels. (Sci-fantasy. 10-12)