Victor Godwin is a science nerd, a perfectionist, and a middle schooler.  He has calculated the odds, and knows that the most surefire way to win the science fair is to create a perfect volcano replica of Pompeii, complete with villagers running away in fear.  Victor also knows that Benjamin Franklin, inventor extraordinaire, died hundreds of years ago – until someone who looks suspiciously like him moves in to the mother-in-law apartment in his house.  Of course, the tenant does turn out to be the reanimated Ben Franklin, and trouble ensues when Victor gets involved in helping him stay animated.  Filled with silly humor, cool looking diagrams of science fair projects and inventions, and madcap adventure, this book is enough to get any reluctant-to-read middle-school boy excited.  While not quite as hilarious or well-written as Scieszka’s similar Time Warp Trio serious, this book could definitely turn the right kind of kid on to reading.  The message of the book pushes it from AD to R — sometimes it’s more important to actually learn something, than to just get a good grade.  Stay tuned for the sequel, Benjamin Franklin Meets the Fright Brothers.