Books with author Caitlin Drake Smith

Franklin gets a great idea when he hears that Fox and his dad are spending the day doing ?special stuff.? ?Coolio!? he says. ?I'm going to have a Day with Dad today, too!? His dad, Mr. Turtle, thinks this is a splendid idea, but first they have to get to the store to replace their broken rain barrel. Once at the store, they help Mr. Mole hang a sign, and on the way home, Mr. Groundhog needs help fixing the hole in his roof. Franklin starts to get worried. When will they ever get on with their fun day together? Eventually, Franklin realizes this is their fun day together! He has learned an important lesson about time spent with his dad: ?It doesn't matter what we do, as long as we're together.?The stories in this series resonate with young children because Franklin and his animal friends consistently face problems and difficulties much like those in children's own day-to-day lives. And Franklin always finds a solution that is easy to understand, realistic and fair. With characters that are well-known to young children through the successful, 3D-animated television show Franklin and Friends, this bright and vivid book would make a wonderful read-aloud for storytime. It offers an excellent opportunity for a tie-in with a character education class about adaptability, kindness or teamwork.

Franklin the turtle and his good friend Beaver are playing on the merry-go-round in the park when they discover a hand-drawn picture of a skunk girl with her skunk parents. But there aren't any skunk families living in Woodland, so who could have left this drawing? It's a real mystery. ?A mystery!? they both shout. ?That sounds like a job for the Super Cluepers!? Franklin, Beaver and five more of their friends --- in their Super Clueper personas, of course --- gather together to begin plotting their strategy. First they must find the skunk girl, then they can ask her if she wants to be their new friend!Combining adventure, mystery and a heartwarming tale about making new friends, this appealing Franklin title is perfect for very young children. Based on the popular 3D-animated television series Franklin and Friends, the Franklin stories continue to be favorites with small children because of the pitch-perfect way they resonate with their own real-world problems. Here, youngsters are encouraged to be curious about the world around them and to work at figuring out things they don't understand. Teachers and librarians will be gratified by the group's decision to begin solving their mystery by first heading to the library. This title provides an excellent story to read aloud to a group. And it's ready-made as a tie-in for a character education lesson on empathy, compassion, inclusiveness or teamwork.

Franklin is excited because his friend Rabbit is coming over to spend the night with him in his backyard. Franklin's dad has set up an amazing rocket ship tent, and Franklin can't wait to play space travel with Rabbit and use all the cool equipment he and his dad have prepared, including fins for steering, a satellite dish, a laser and ?zero-gravity grabbers.? There's just one problem. Franklin's sister, Harriet, keeps interrupting them to ask Rabbit to play with her instead, and Franklin finds himself getting more and more angry about not getting to play with his friend. But Franklin eventually discovers that Rabbit actually wants to play with Harriet because he misses his own many brothers and sisters. Once Franklin's understanding grows, he finds a creative way to include Harriet in their rocket ship games to make Rabbit feel more at home.The lasting appeal of the Franklin and Friends series is the way the stories feature very familiar and realistic problems and challenges faced by small children in their everyday lives, along with ideas for how children can work the problems out for themselves. Based on the popular, 3D-animated television show Franklin and Friends, the terrific books in this series will appeal to a ready-made audience of pre-readers. But this book also stands on its own as a delightful read-aloud story, with the added bonus of the wonderful, gentle character education lessons it teaches about empathy, tolerance and inclusiveness.

When Franklin sees (and hears) what a terrific job his friend Fox did fixing up the old, broken radio that Franklin had put in the junk box during the Turtle Family Clean-Up and Giveaway Day, he has second thoughts about having thrown it away. So his sympathetic friend Fox offers to give the now like-new radio back to him. Though this pleases Franklin at first, after a little while, he starts to feel uncomfortable about having taken the radio that Fox had worked so hard on. ?Aren't you happy to have the radio back?? his friend Bear asks him. ?I don't know,? says Franklin. ?Something just doesn't feel right.? As with all the books in this series based on the ever-popular 3D-animated TV series Franklin and Friends, this one will have wide appeal for its endearing characters and the wonderful lessons it provides young children about how to deal with difficulties they commonly face in their lives. Here, children can ponder what it means to make a decision and regret it later. In the end, Franklin follows his heart and realizes that the radio makes Fox far happier than him. This book would make a wonderful tie-in to character education lessons on kindness, integrity and fairness. A great read aloud, it could also be used to launch classroom discussions about the environmental issues of reducing, reusing and recycling.