Accelerated Reading Level: 5.0
This is an excellent book to introduce scientific method and explain how we got the terms "blind" test and the "placebo effect." Here we find Ben sailing to France during the American Revolution to ask King Louis the 16th and Queen Marie Antoinette for financial assistance. While in France, there was a great deal of talk about something strange and new --- SCIENCE, from a Dr. Mesmer.
The book does a great job comparing the differences between Ben Franklin, a simple man, and the fancy Dr. Mesmer who seemed to have a special force that could make people do unusual things. Everyone in France thought Dr. Mesmer's science was amazing and ground breaking, except skeptical Benjamin Franklin. Ben went on to scientifically prove that Dr. Mesmer was doing nothing more than utilizing the power or people's thoughts, which today we would can hypnosis. Dr. Mesmer disappeared in disgrace and Ben secured funding for the Revolutionary soldiers and headed back home.
I really liked this book and found this information of Ben Franklin refreshing. There is a lot of stuff going on in the illustrations and side bars which could be confusing to young students. I would recommend this more for 4th and 5th graders, but with the appropriate scaffolding, you could use it to help introduce the scientific method to 2nd and 3rd graders.
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