Franny K. Stein 8 – Bad Hair Day

Jim Benton's Bad Hair Day is a mad science story for 7 year olds about a girl whose pigtails run off without her.

What happens

Franny K. Stein would much rather wear her lab suit than anything fancy. So when her mum suggests hair spray, or a blow-dryer, or a nice coat now and then, Franny says thanks but it just isn't her.

Then she starts to wonder. Does Mum want her to change? And isn't science meant to be about exploring the things you don't understand? (Mum's beauty stuff definitely counts.)

So the next day she gets experimenting. There's a Cosmetic Bazooka that does a whole face in one blast (Igor ducks just in time). There's nail polish that grows nails strong enough to punch through wood. Then there's a growth formula for her hair, three drops on each pigtail and no more.

You can probably guess how that goes. The pigtails grow, then start helping out, then start sneaking more formula in the night. By the morning they've snipped themselves off her head and gone on a hair-eating rampage across town.

The jokes come thick and fast, and loads of them are hair jokes. Franny gallops into battle on a real pony made from her own ponytail, which tells you everything about the vibe. Even the chapter titles are puns (Shear Madness, Split Ends) and grown-ups reading along will groan.

Igor is the heart of it. He's Franny's lab assistant, a dog who's part Lab, part poodle and part some kind of weaselly thing. Mum thinks he's not much to look at and Franny thinks he's beautiful. He's SO brave in this one, and the scrape he gets into with one of the pigtails is very funny and just a little bit gross.

Underneath all the hair there's a sweet thread about Franny and her mum. Mum isn't pushy at all. She just wants Franny to know she can change her mind whenever she likes. Plenty of kids will recognise the worry Franny has in front of the mirror, though, about whether someone you love wishes you were different.

It's the eighth Franny K. Stein book, going by the series line on its copyright page, and it stands completely on its own.

What to read next

If your reader likes the idea of Franny trying out a different version of herself, go right back to the very first book, Lunch Walks Among Us. Franny is new at school there, and she mixes up a potion to turn herself into a sweet little girl with cute hair and adorable shoes.