Franklin and the Bubble Gum

Franklin the Turtle

by Sharon Jennings, Sean Jeffrey (Illustrator), Sasha McIntyre (Illustrator)

After a bout with an over-generous gumball machine, Franklin must prove to his friends and to Mr. Mole that he is not a gumball thief! This Level 2 first reader contains longer stories, varied sentences, increased vocabulary, more difficult visual clues and some repetition.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2006

About the author

Sharon Jennings is a children's book author. She has published over 70 books in 27 years. She teaches writing at Ryerson University. She was President of The Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (CANSCAIP) for three terms.

Reviews

[Edward Sojuwa]

In this one, Franklin is a small turtle who sometimes gets in big trouble thru no fault of his own. One day Franklin stops by the candy shoppe owned by a friendly badger and finds a "lucky penny" outside. Thinking it a blessing in disguise, Frankie heads to the shoppe's gumball machine, puts in the penny and BOOM out comes a ton of gumballs! Franky soon heads to his animal buddies in the park and shares his sticky stash. But then the news is spread by Mr Beaver, the local gossip slash know-it-all, that the shoppe is robbed of its gumballs. And of course Frankie feels the weight of responsibility and decides to tell the old badger the truth, which the badger owner appreciates...since, for one, the gumball machine is broken, and the spill of gumballs was definitely not done by some "lucky penny". Nicely done story for kids, a reminder that even in today's world, good things come out of bad situations after all.
Three stars
Franky loves them chewy (gum)balls!!!

[Dolly]

Franklin finds a penny and picks it up, thinking of the old adage, "Find a penny, pick it up. All the day you'll have good luck." So when the gumball machine gives him not one, but all the gumballs, he thinks it's his lucky day. The story ends up being a moral tale about telling the truth, but it's a bit of a stretch, if you ask me. The girls enjoyed it, however, and loved that he got a lot of gum.

[Amy]

Franklin puts a penny in a gumball machine and ALL the gumballs come out. He shares them with his friends. But then the owner of the gumball machine complains that somebody stole his gumballs! Oh no! Franklin learns that it is good to be honest.

[Karen and Sarah Z]

It was pretty good but not awesome. I wonder why Mr Mole's gum ball machine wasn't working?