Bad Hair Day

April 1, 2019
Another science experiment literally goes hair-raisingly wrong. Following a 10-year hiatus, Franny returns to whip up more mad science in her bedroom laboratory. Initially rejecting her mother's efforts to turn her on to hair spray and blow drying, Franny recalls that science is all about exploring the unknown ("Even if it's the really super-weird stuff that moms like") and so whips up a line of twisted beauty products. These include a Cosmetic Bazooka that blasts out whole, heavily made-up faces and "shoe polish" that turns high heels into really high heels. Eventually a version of the latter not only extends her pigtails to Rapunzel length, but brings them to life--whereupon they snip themselves off and rush out to menace every barber shop, salon, and furry pet in town. Cue a seesaw struggle which Franny, with help from her canine assistant Igor, ends by temporarily immobilizing her errant locks with hair spray and then presenting her mom with a new "fur" coat. Franny's enthusiasm for hands-on experimentation, and the slightly menacing grimace she sports in many of the ink-and-wash cartoons that fill half or more of nearly every page, may add a certain raffish charm, but the quaint, not to say sexist, satiric tropes went stale long ago. Franny and her mom present white. A labored effort to revive a series that never was quite as clever as it tried to be. (Science fiction. 7-9)

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July 1, 2019

Gr 1-3-Adventurous, creative, and "mad" scientist Franny K. Stein first balks at her mother's suggestion that the fledgling inventor could improve her appearance by doing "kooky stuff" like dress nicely, fix her hair, and wear makeup. Then, industrious Franny sees an opportunity when she recalls that science is about exploring the unknown; and, what could be more perplexing than cosmetics? Franny and her canine lab assistant, Igor, get busy inventing new and improved beauty products like a bazooka that shoots makeup directly onto faces and shoes that grow long spiky heels. However, things get out of hand when Franny's miraculous hair-growing formula turns her regular pigtails into two out-of-control wild pigs made of purple hair! This zany tale will please readers familiar with Franny's antics. Black-and-white illustrations on every page enhance the silly story. VERDICT A tale of wild science packed with plenty of tongue-in-cheek puns that will earn a chuckle from emerging chapter book readers.-Tara Kehoe, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Charlotte, NC

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