An original Saturday Night Live writer, ALAN ZWEIBEL has won multiple Emmy and Writers Guild of America awards for his work in television, which also includes It's Garry Shandling's Show, Late Show With David Letterman , and Curb Your Enthusiasm . In the theater he collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award winning play 700 Sundays , wrote the off-Broadway play Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner: A Sort of Romantic Comedy which he adapted from his book, and his novel The Other Shulman won the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor.
ADAM MANSBACH is the author if the instant New York Times best sellers Go the to Sleep and You Have to Eat , as well as the novels Rage is Back , The Dead Run , Angry Black White Boy , and The End of the Jews , winner of the California Book Award. His work has appeared in The New Yorker , New York Times Book Review , Esquire , The Believer , and on National Public Radio's All Things Considered .

Together, Adam and Alan are also the authors of the second book in this series, Benjamin Franklin: You've Got Mail .

Dear Mr. Franklin,

First of all, let me just say that this Assignment is Stupid. You are Dead. Why am I writing a letter to Some dead guy I've never even met?

This is the start to a most unlikely pen pal relationship between thirteen-year-old Franklin Isaac Saturday (Ike) and Benjamin Franklin. Before the fateful extra credit assignment that started it all, Ike's life was pretty normal. He was avoiding the popularity contests of middle school, crushing hard on Clare Wanzandae and trying not roll his eyes at his stepfather, Dirk-the-Jerk's, lame jokes.

But all that changes when, in a successful effort to make Claire Wanzandae laugh, Ike mails his homework assignment to Ben Franklin and he writes back. Soon, things go awry. After Ike has an embarrassing moment of epic proportions in front of Claire involving a playground, non-alcoholic beer, and a lot of kettle corn, Ike decides he needs to find a way to win Claire back. With some help from his new friend, B-Freezy, can Ike get the girl and make his mark in history?
Praise for Benjamin Franklin: Huge Pain in my...
"Famously funny, this book flies like Ben Franklin's kite, but into a nuclear reactor. Forget the lightning; kids' stuff!"
-Ridley Pearson, New York Times best-selling author of The Kingdom Keepers series and Peter and the Starcatchers

"This is absolutely the funniest book about time-traveling mail and Benjamin Franklin that I have ever read. And I have read them all."
-Dave Barry, New York Times Best-Selling author of The Worst Class Trip Ever