Jim Benton

Franny K. Stein is a mad scientist who prefers all things spooky and creepy, but when she has trouble making friends at her new school she experiments with fitting in--which works until a monster erupts from the trashcan.

When Franny Stein, self-styled mad scientist, creates a robot to show her school friends the joys of science, she ends up learning something from them instead.

Franny tries to follow her mother's suggestion to change her appearance, but by turning hair styling into a science experiment she creates some very greedy pigtails that terrorize the town.

Jamie is upset because she is now automatic friends with her old enemy Angeline, and so she tries to find something that she and her real friend, Isabella, can do together for the school talent show without Angeline.

Jamie's struggles continue with school issues, grades, and getting along with others.

"Dear Dumb Diary, just when I was pretty sure we could let the Student Awareness Committee quietly die a dignified death like some majestic old elephant or the Square Dancing Club, Angeline has to be aware of something. Great. And, of course, it couldn't be something interesting like nail polish or why maybe there should be a special class in nail polish and how to get it out of your beagle's ear. (Mom, if you're reading this, I'm not admitting anything....

With so much on her plate, like creating monsters out of meat by-products and dealing with overgrown babies, mad scientist Fran decides that the only way to get all her tasks done is to create Franbots, steel-plated duplicates of herself with minds of their own!

Concerned that the fundraisers for the school art and music departments are not doing well, Franny K. Stein creates in her laboratory/kitchen an irresistible muffin recipe.

New York Times bestselling author Jim Benton's latest creation, Catwad, returns! Catwad and Blurmp are back and ready for more adventures! In this newest collection of hilarious stories, the dynamic feline duo explore fine art, travel to an alternate reality where the world has become extraordinarily dumb, get into gaming, and more! From monsters under Blurmp's bed to all the reasons you should NEVER eat salad, this newest volume of Catwad has something...

In her diary, middle school student Jamie Kelly describes her life at home and at school, including her attempts to triumph over her nemesis, the beautiful and popular Angeline.