Franny K. Stein

Franny K. Stein is a series of children's chapter books by Jim Benton, who also wrote Dear Dumb Diary. They focus on Franny, who at the tender age of seven is already a practicing mad scientist who turned her own room into her lab. With the aid of her assistant Igor, a dog, Franny is constantly performing experiments. Unfortunately, do to Franny's relative inexperience with life, she rarely thinks her experiments through. This usually leads to all kinds of trouble, which Franny and Igor then have to fix.

This book series contains examples of the following tropes.


 * Creepy Child: Franny pretty much lives this. She routinely has bats in her room. No matter how many times her mom gets rid of them, they just keep reappearing. Franny doesn't get them form anywhere, they just show up, because they like her. In the first book Franny actually tries to get away from this, to fit in. In the end, however, the other students learn to accept Franny for who she is, though they're still kinda scared of her.
 * Embarrassing Middle Name: Kissypie, Franny is so embarassed by it that she goes back in time to change it. She chooses Kaboom instead,
 * Fridge Logic: Considering how much property damage Franny's experiments have caused, how has her family ever managed to pay for it all? I can only assume Franny got patents for some of her experiments that actually did work.
 * Kid Genius: Franny is this, full stop. She builds complex machines and has demonstrated expert knowledge in chemistry, robotics, and bioengineering. In the first book Franny actually produce's a functioning Frankenstein's monster out of luncheon meat and batteries. Did I mention she's only seven years old?
 * Lethal Chef: Suprisingly averted. Franny is a fairly capable cook. She takes cooking classes in her spare time and routinely cooks gourmet dishes for herself.
 * Mad Scientist: Franny.
 * Two Faced: In one book, Franny invents a suit that literally allows her to become this.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome: Franny just doesn't understand why the other kids in her class don't like mad science as much as she does.