Ben Franklin's Big Splash
The Mostly True Story of His First Invention

Ben Franklin's Big Splash: The Mostly True Story of his First Invention tells the story of how he attempted to invent swimming paddles for hands and feet as a child growing up in Philadelphia. It begins with the story of how he loved swimming, which was unusual for that time period. Observing the fi......more

Ben Franklin grew up the son of a soap maker and loved to spend his free time on summer days swimming in the river near his home. In the time of his childhood, people just did not swim or wash regularly because they thought it would make you sick, so Ben was considered rather odd for the amount of t......more

Lively text and humorous comments make this exploration of the early years of Ben Franklin sparkle. Many young readers just might draw inspiration from Franklin's example as he fashions wooden fins for his hands and feet to help him swim better. The author imagines that he used fish as the models fo......more