Historical Fiction Picture Book: Ben Franklin's Big Splash

Title: Ben Franklin's Big Splash
Author: Barb Rosenstock
Publication: 2014

Ben Franklin's Big Splash is about Ben Franklin's first invention as a child. He wanted to swim more like a fish and invented a way to do so. I would call his invention antiquated snorkeling flippers. This book showcases what a wonderful, brilliant mind Ben Franklin had from a young age, and why he ended up being the great inventor, thinker and extraordinaire that he was in his later life.

Barb Rosenstock uses alliteration in his texts to grab the reader's attention and make the text more fun to read. As he says on the second page of the book, "Slid off his stinky shoes, stripped off his sweaty stockings, squirmed out of his sticky shirt, shed his steamy breeches, and splashed in." By using the alliteration of "s" here, he further portrays the slippery, wet feeling of the actions taking place on that page. There are pictures of water shown, which even further display the sense of getting wet and sliding in the soaking wet water.

One of my favorite parts about the book was the differing shapes and colors of the text on each page. I am very much a visual learner, a photographer, and love doing hand-lettering in my spare time, so I take great notice to small details like the text structure and shape. By bolding and coloring certain words on each page, it kept me, as a reader, intrigued and focused. It almost provided further entertainment for me and kept me interested in reading the book. A+ on adding that technique to the book!!!

Another technique used by the illustrator was making the pictures look antiquated. They look as if they are set back in Ben Franklin's time period, making the story more realistic. The illustrations have a colonial feel to them, helping the reader understand the time period that they are reading about. Since this is a historical fiction picture book, I believe the illustrator hit the nail on the head here when designing the photos. He portrays Ben Franklin during his time period in an accurate way so that readers can understand that this is a true story with just fictionalized dialogue and a close to accurate story line.