Ben Franklin's Fame
You can buy the Blast to the Past book "Ben Franklin's Fame" by clicking here!

Get Real with History!
Read all about Ben Franklin on Wikipedia.

“Abigail”-Mr. C put his finger up to his lips-“Shhh. You are making too much noise.”

“Sorry,” I apologized. “But Mr. C, did you read page one-forty-four?”

“Not yet,” Mr. C admitted. “I was busy looking for the correct page for Ben Fran-" his voice broke off as he began to read the words from Cindy Cho’s book.

Mr. C suddenly announced, “Class dismissed.”

“What?” Khoi said, jaw hanging open. “We haven’t learned anything yet.”

“Go outside for recess,” Mr. C told everyone. Then, a little impatiently, he waved his hands at us and added, “Now.”

“But, Mr. C, it’s not time for recess,” Eliana Feinerman argued. She was staring at our teacher as if he had gone nutty.

“Fine.” Mr. C swept the papers on his desk into a crumpled pile, preparing to run out of the room. “If you don’t want recess, you can go next door to Mrs. Hodgkin’s class for an extra period of math.”

“No! Please. Not Mrs. Hodgkin. Anyone but Mrs. Hodgkin,” Zack whined. “Cant’ we have more PE? Science? I’d even pick language arts over math.”

I cut him off, whispering, “Mellow out, Zack. You, me, Jacob, and Bo aren’t going to math. We have to help Mr. C.” I pointed down to our history book. The picture that seemed fuzzy before was now staring very clearly up at me. Even in the small drawing, I could tell that Babs Magee was wearing her usual yellow hat and matching coat, smiling her sneaky smile.

“Obviously,” I said softly to the boys, “Babs Magee won this time. She finally convinced someone to quit. She convinced Ben Franklin!” I reviewed the list of stuff our book said Babs had been: Politician. Inventor. Visionary. The list went on and on.

She’d taken credit for everything Ben Franklin had done and now, she was known as one of the world’s most famous Americans. She finally got the fame she wanted. By stealing Ben Franklin’s life!

What happened to poor Ben Franklin? I wondered. Where had he gone?

I looked over at Mr. C. His glasses had slipped back down his nose, but he didn’t push them up. “Don’t’ move,” he told the class, motioning like a traffic cop for everyone to stop. “I’ll be right back.” Mr. C rushed out of the room.

I heard the door to Mrs. Hodgkin’s classroom open. Mr. C’s voice echoed in the hallway.
A few seconds later, he came back. “It’s all been arranged,” Mr. C announced. “A sudden emergency has come up. Today, the entire class will go next door for a double math period.” Everyone groaned, even Zack.

I was going to poke Zack, but Jacob did it first. “I don’t think Mr. C means us,” Jacob said.

Suddenly I was full of doubt. Mr. C would want us to help him put Ben Franklin back into history, wouldn’t he? We were going to time-travel, weren’t we? Maybe he planned to do it himself. I just assumed he’d want Bo, Zack, Jacob, and me to go. We’d done so well on all our other adventures. Then again, my mom says never assume.

“Abigail, Jacob, Zack, and Bo,” Mr. C interrupted my rambling thoughts. He came close to us and whispered, “Stay here while I lead the rest of the class next door.”

When the door closed and we were alone in the classroom, I turned to the boys and said confidently, “I knew he’d want our help.”

Mr. C stuck his head back in the classroom and told us to hurry. We practically had to jog to keep up as we followed him to the back of the school gym and down the stairs.

“I knew Babs Magee would try to convince Ben Franklin to quit today. He’s next on my list of names. I just didn’t realize that she’d get this far, this fast.” MR. C took a key from his pocket and opened the wooden door to his laboratory. “I made the time-travel cartridge for you this morning.”

I thought about saying, “Duh.” I mean, looking at his suit and hair, it was pretty obvious he’d already made the cartridge. It was hard, but I held my tongue.

Mr. C went on. “I was going to give it to you after school, but now we can’t waste any time.” Mr. C didn’t say anything else as he crossed the room. He bent down next to a locked safe and began to press the buttons for the combination.

He took our time-travel computer and a small cartridge from the safe.

“Babs Magee has made a terrible ness of history. Find Ben Franklin and put things back.”

CONTINUED...

Read about Ben Franklin and write the story the way YOU would make it turn out.

Then get the Blast to the Past book and see what happens with Zack, Jacob, and Bo.

You can buy the Blast to the Past book "Ben Franklin's Fame" by clicking here!

Read all about Ben Franklin on Wikipedia.

Read all the Blast to the Past chapters here!

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