Franklin and the Radio

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.