Lola M. Schaefer - Frankie Stein Review

Frankie Stein [2007, Marshall Cavendish Children, ISBN: 987-0-7614-5358-1], by Lola M. Schaefer and illustrated by Kevan Atteberry, is a 32-page children's book with a Halloween theme.

The Story

A little boy named Frankie Stein is born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Stein, but they are a bit surprised that he looks so unusual. He looks like a kid rather than his "scary" relatives, so they decide to fix his blond hair, white teeth, smooth skin, and other "flaws." Although they had him looking more like a Stein, Frankie still didn't quite have the actions down, so his parents decided to give him a few lessons in how to act and to give him more inspiration by showing him his family tree.

Frankie begins to try to live up to his family's name. He really does. Then he decides to show them his own kind of scariness with a grand entrance. How will his parents react?

Most pages have several sentences with light font on dark backgrounds and dark font on light backgrounds. The pictures are fun and colorful and the story flows well from one page to the next. The only phrase that I didn't particularly care for was where it said that the parents "fainted dead away." I think that could have been worded better. If reading this book to a group of kids in which a child has lost a parent, this might be disturbing to them.

My Viewpoint:

Frankie Stein is a cute Halloween children's book that encourages children to learn about their heritage but to also be unique. My kids enjoyed this story and really got into it by asking questions and pointing to pictures througout the book. My main concern was the phrase mentioned above, but other than that, I like this children's Halloween book.