Clara’s Verdict
The second Stella Batts book takes the small, sincere comedy of the first and gives it a lovely emotional undertow. Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow is still funny and still fond, but Courtney Sheinmel lets a real ache creep in, and the balance is judged beautifully for its age group.
Stella’s troubles escalate in the most eight-year-old of ways. There is magical chewing gum, a run of comically bad luck, and a haircut nobody asked for, and then, underneath the slapstick, the genuine grief of a best friend moving away. Sheinmel never lets the sadness overwhelm the fun, but she respects it, and children who have said goodbye to a friend will feel understood.
It is a short book that does a surprising amount. I came away thinking it is the rare early chapter book that trusts young listeners to hold two feelings at once, and to come out the other side with Stella’s cheerful resilience intact.
About the Audiobook
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow is the second book in Courtney Sheinmel’s Stella Batts series, again narrated by Cassandra Morris. One of the perks of having parents who own a candy store is being an official taste-tester, so when Stella’s dad brings home a batch of magical glow in the dark chewing gum, she cannot wait to try it, especially as her younger sister is already blowing bubbles and making magic gum wishes that seem to come true.
For Stella, though, the gum brings nothing but bad luck. She cannot manage a single bubble, and then she falls asleep chewing a piece that ends up wadded in her hair, which leads to a rather drastic haircut. Worse still, her best friend Willa announces that she is moving clear across the country. It becomes very hard to believe in any kind of magic when life behaves like this, yet Stella holds to the idea that when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and that is exactly what she sets out to do.
Beneath the comic misfortunes, the book is really about change and how a child weathers it. The runaway chewing gum and the unfortunate haircut are the sort of calamities that loom enormous at seven or eight, and Sheinmel gives them their due before turning to the harder loss of a friend moving away. That she manages both registers in so few pages is the quiet achievement here, and it is why the story lands as more than a string of mishaps. Stella’s resolve to keep going gives young listeners a model worth having.
The Narration
Cassandra Morris returns for a tidy one hour and thirty minutes, and the continuity of her voice matters more than you might expect. Children who met Stella in the first book will settle instantly back into her company, and Morris carries the slightly bigger emotions of this instalment with a sure touch, keeping Stella plucky even when her world wobbles.
The performance knows when to slow down. The comic set pieces are given room to land, and the tender moment of a friend leaving is handled without sentimentality, spoken plainly enough that a young listener can absorb it. At an hour and a half it stays well within a child’s attention span, and it makes an easy bedtime companion across a couple of nights.
Morris is alert to the shifts in mood, and that sensitivity is the making of the audio. She lets the slapstick be genuinely funny, then draws the energy down when Willa’s news arrives, so the sadness registers without ever becoming overwhelming. For a family listening together, those tonal cues do a lot of gentle work, giving a grown up natural openings to talk through a child’s own experience of goodbyes. The brevity helps too, keeping the emotional beats within comfortable reach of a young attention span.
What Readers Say
With 184 ratings and an average of 4.5 stars, the response echoes the affection for the first book. One grandparent bought it for a granddaughter who loved it, and an American parent compared the experience of being read to by their child to the Judy Blume books of their own childhood, which is high praise for a chapter book series.
Reviewers describe these as surprise and delight stories, as much fun for the grown up reading aloud as for the child listening. Parents of early readers highlight the aspirational glimpses of what an older school year might be like, and several mention a seven-year-old begging for just one more chapter at bedtime. The lessons, they note, arrive naturally through Stella’s own perspective rather than being lectured.
Who Should Listen?
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow suits the same five to eight range as its predecessor, and it is especially well timed for any child navigating a friendship that is changing or a goodbye of their own. It rewards families who are working through the series in order, though it stands well enough on its own for a first taste.
If your young listener enjoyed meeting Stella, this warm and gently bittersweet follow-up is an easy next step, and you can Listen to Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow on Audible to carry on the series.
