Franny's Feet

Visiting an observatory in Hawaii, Franny meets a mouse named Leo (short for Galileo) who has a passion for astronomy. But due to his small size, Leo has never been able to reach the lens of the observatory’s powerful telescope and peer up at the night sky. Inspired by some expert web-weaving from Galileo’s friend, Gilly, Franny creates a ladder out of knotted twine, and Leo gets to marvel, firsthand, at the ravishing rings of Saturn./Whirling and twirling to Pisa, Italy, Franny helps a young aspiring tour guide named Antonio overcome his fear of heights in time to ring the bells atop the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Instead of worrying about the many steps to the top, Franny encourages Antonio to take it one step at a time. And using some of Antonio’s tourist flags to cover the tower top’s windows helps ease some of his worries as well.

It’s a mystery when Franny revisits Johnny in Jamaica, where they build a sandcastle at the beach, down by the water. But after returning from a short visit to the market, they discover their sandcastle is missing! Playing detectives, they set about collecting clues, and realize the tide must have washed their sandcastle away./Twirling back to Pioneer Days, Franny revisits her friend, Lucy, and gets some first-hand experience milking Lucy’s cow, Buttercup, and the self-sufficiency of farm life during this time. When the butter churner breaks down, Franny comes up with a simple yet effective solution by suggesting to Lucy that they shake the cream in jam jars, and lo and behold: butter!

In ancient Egypt, Franny revisits Princess Tia who is ready to add a hieroglyph of her royal cat, Kiya, to her family’s royal wall. But before applying permanent paint to the wall, Tia wants to practice writing out Kiya’s name. Seeing how the Egyptians use papyrus for baskets, shoes and even bedding, Franny comes up with a great remedy for Tia’s problem, and the precursor of paper./Hamish, a Scottish bagpipe player, learns to play a musical instrument that has no volume control! After scaring away his dog, chickens and some sheep with the bagpipe’s harsh wails, Franny discovers that a hay bale-filled barn provides some much needed soundproofing for Hamish to practice.

Franny helps a kinkajou named Kinka locate her brother (Zuca) in a nighttime game of hide and seek. Problem is, Kinka’s great hearing isn’t helped by all the noisiness of the other nocturnal creatures in the rainforest canopy. And Franny’s sight isn’t as good in the dark. But knowing Zuca was eating honey, Franny comes up with a great way to find him: by using their other senses, namely smell and touch./ Franny learns something about improvising and a lot about chocolate when she visits her friend, Nina, on her farm in Mexico, where the unusual looking cacao trees grow. The two come together when Nina's maraca bursts and spills out its seeds. Fortunately, some extra cacao seeds from Nina’s Mami’s kitchen come in as a handy replacement to give the maraca its distinctive, shaky sound. Just in time for a fiesta!

Franny travels in a hot air balloon and helps a monarch butterfly named Mina learn how to fly the vast distance to its hibernation spot in Mexico. By observing how the hot air balloon rises with warm air, and sinks with cool air, Franny suggests that Mina use the warm air to help her glide, so she need not flap her wings as hard. Soon enough, Mina is no longer flying hard, but flying smart. (Wearing butterfly wings Grandpa has made for her to wear at a special butterfly event at the park, Franny finds it exhausting running around to keep her wings moving.)/Franny helps her friend Elsie with a totem pole just in time for a native potlatch ceremony that will celebrate the birth of Elsie’s baby brother. But the totem pole keeps leaning backwards! Discovering that the uncarved side of the pole is heavier than the carved side, and inspired by watching a mischievous raven constantly tip forward as it tries to sneak away with a large piece of bannock bread, the girls realize that by making both sides of the pole equal weight, they can balance the pole so it stands straight and steady.

Whirling to Antarctica, the coldest, driest and windiest place on earth, Franny meets a happy, dancing Emperor Penguin named Prewitt, who is new to egg-sitting. Trying to shield his egg from the cold by using his wings, Prewitt is exhausted. Fortunately, Franny sees that Prewitt has a perfectly convenient and perfectly warm place to nest his egg: under his jiggly tummy, and right on top of his feet./Franny twirls to baroque Austria, to the Schoenbrunn palace, where she meets a princess (archduchess) named Maria, who teaches Franny to dance the minuet in an elegant ballroom lit only by lanterns. But Maria’s diamond slips off from her tiara! There’s no electricity during this era, so with a bit of ingenuity, and with the help of a mirror, Franny is able to shine a light on the problem by reflecting the light from the lanterns onto the floor.

A traditional Indian wedding is where Franny meets Amir, a sitar-playing boy, whose translucent green scarf gets damaged when it gets caught in the thorns of the cotton plants that surround Amir’s property. When Franny watches Amir’s Grandmother make chicken tikka masala, and sees how adding a yellow spice (turmeric) changes the color of the red tomato sauce, Franny has an inspired solution to Amir’s sartorial problem. He can layer a translucent yellow scarf over a blue one and create a green one!/Franny meets a boy named Petrov, as he sets up his souvenir table at an open air market in Russia. But the boxes Petrov uses to pack up his carved eggs, lacquered boxes and Matroyshka dolls takes up all the room in the booth! Inspired by the charming nesting dolls, which fit one into the other, Franny comes up with the idea of nesting the smaller boxes into the larger, and soon enough, Petrov is ready for business.

Backstage at a ballet, Franny meets Lila, a young ballerina who’s preparing for her role as a Gingerbread Girl in ‘The Nutcracker’. Lila shows Franny all the different areas of backstage including the rehearsal space, the orchestra pit, and the props area where she spies the biggest tree she’s ever seen! Minutes before she’s supposed to go onstage, Lila realizes she’s lost her slippers. With Franny’s help, they backtrack through all the places they’ve visited and find her slippers, just in time for the big show!/At a skating rink, Franny meets Sylvie, a young figure skater in training. With her new friend’s help, Franny learns how to stand on the ice, and even how to skate a little. Sylvie’s a really good figure skater, but she can’t compete like the other skaters in the rink because she can’t do a figure eight. Inspired by the blue lines on the ice painted for the hockey players, Franny draws an eight on the ice for Sylvie to follow. After a little practice, Sylvie’s able to master the figure eight, and excited to join in the competition.

Franny visits New Zealand where she meets Iwi, a kiwi bird who’s babysitting a soon to be hatched kiwi egg. When the egg’s Mum ( his mate) comes to take over the sitting duties, Iwi shows Franny around the area. Franny learns all about Kiwi birds, and tastes some yummy kiwi fruit. Soon Franny learns that Kiwi birds can’t fly and tries to help Iwi imagine what it’s like to fly, but he just can’t feel it. Inspired by some swings nearby, Franny suggests Iwi sit on a swing and flap his wings as he swings back and forth. It works! Iwi’s thrilled with this new discovery, and promises to take his mate, and his new chick for a flight of their own someday soon./At the beautiful Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan – one of the world’s fashion capitals -Franny bumps into a girl named Aida who’s carrying a portfolio full of her older sister’s fashion designs. After the collision, the paper dolls and clothing cut-outs in the portfolio fly out, scattering every which way. After scrambling to retrieve the designs, the girls realize something doesn’t look right, such as a paper doll dressed in a winter coat wearing sandals on her feet! But some seasonal matching sets things straight, and soon enough, the paper dolls look bella again.

Up in space, Franny meets a young astronaut named Cosmo who shows her around the international space station. Franny experiences zero gravity as they float from the kitchen area, to the gym, to the work area, learning along the way how astronauts eat, exercise and work in space. Every area in the station is cleverly designed to make use of the limited space – except in Cosmo’s personal area. All his belongs are floating everywhere. Franny helps him keep his belongings from getting in the way by finding a way to fasten them in place./In Holland, Franny meets Ida, her goofy dog Hugo and her friendly Uncle Falko. Franny has arrived just in time for the annual tulip parade and helps Ida make a flower float in the shape of a Dutch Clog. Thrilled with their work of flower art, Franny and Ida are anxious to join the parade. But they have no way to transport their float and time is running out. With a little help from Uncle Falko and his tugboat, Ida gets her float to the parade in time.

In the mountains of China, Franny meets Ling, a young Chinese girl, and her Panda friends, Ko-ko, Boo and Nana. She learns all about panda bears, and their favourite treat - bamboo! When the winds start to pick up, Ling decides it’s time to get the pandas back to their shelter. But three pandas are too much for two little girls to carry. Using some bamboo, rope and a wooden box, Ling and Franny fashion a wheelbarrow, and push the pandas back home./At the Great Barrier Reef, Franny meets a playful young dolphin. The only problem is, the dolphin doesn’t speak her language so they have to figure out how to communicate without words. Using his body and flippers to give her hints, Franny soon guesses that her new friend’s name is Digger. Digger then nudges Franny and quickly swims away. After a while, Franny figures out that Digger wants to play hide-and-seek. When a mischievous starfish get stuck in an underwater plant, the two new friends use body language to communicate with each other and rescue the stuck starfish.

In the Galapagos islands, Franny meets two Tortoises named Tomas and Tilly. Tomas would like to make friends with Tilly and tries various ways to get her attention - but his efforts don’t meet with much success. Finally Franny suggests that all Tomas has to do to meet Tilly is speak to her, and be himself. Tomas takes her advice and before too long Tilly and Tomas become fast friends./Franny whirls and twirls to the Arctic where she re-visits her old friend, Mowat the Moose. Mowat is on a mission to find the Dance of the Spirits and Franny offers to accompany him. On the way they meet a friendly seal who gives them a compass left by a visiting scientist. Together they learn all about magnetism, and the northern lights – which they realize are the very Dancing Spirits they were looking for.

In Gibraltar, Franny meets two Barbary Apes named Walter and Mac. Walter, who’s a bit shy, wants to befriend Mac, the most popular and outgoing ape on the rock, but he thinks Mac simply doesn't have time for him. When they take a trip to the caves, Walter learns that Mac is afraid of the shadows. Mac and Franny ask some nearby tourists to take pictures and the flashes from their cameras illuminate the caves, showing Mac the shadows are not scary after all. After Mac sees how Walter went out of his way to help him get over his fear, the two apes become fast friends./At a Harvest Fair, Franny meets Molly, a young girl who's guarding her family's sunflowers from hungry crows. There’s a costume party at the fair, and Molly would love to go, but she can’t leave the stand or the crows will gobble all the sunflower seeds. Inspired by all the hand made crafts, Franny and Molly make a scarecrow using the materials they find around them, like straw and burlap. Once they place the scarecrow in the sunflower patch, it successfully scares the crows away and Molly can join her friends at the costume party – dressed as, what else, a scarecrow!