Stella Batts: None of Your Beeswax

Stella Batts #7

by Courtney Sheinmel, Jennifer A. Bell (Illustrator)

Can you keep a secret? Stella Batts has a lot of secrets to keep these days--there's the secret of what really happened to her little sister's pet fish, and there's the secret school project she's working on with her friend Lucy, and there's the secret on the second floor of her family's candy store. Actually, Stella doesn't know the candy store secret yet, because her dad won't tell her. Even though she's eight years old, and that's old enough to be trusted! Stella hasn't told any of her other secrets all week, and some of her other friends are feeling left out. But that's the problem with being told a You have to keep it!

Genres: Humor, Childrens, Audiobook, Middle Grade, Animals, Fiction

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

Born in California. Raised in New York. Went to law school, now write full time. Love: long walks, fresh notebooks, the smell of brownies, pomegranate seeds. Don't love: yogurt, spam (the email kind, and the food kind), deep water, deserted city streets.

Newest book: THE SECRETS OF LOVELACE ACADEMY, co-written with Marie Benedict, available on April 22, 2025.

I love to hear from readers! Email me! Ask a question! I promise to reply.

Reviews

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be honest I sometimes start a series of children's books out of order to see if the books can stand alone. If a book later in the series can stand alone I am more likely to give the series a chance. To be honest I cannot remember how I first encountered the Stella Batts books, either a review from a blog I follow or a recommendation based on one of the book sites I use. But I thought it was a series my oldest daughter would be interested in so I gave this book a go. I was very happy with the results. These are very realistic reads. I have now started them with my daughter and she is as enthusiastic as I am about reading them.

The book starts off with Stella sharing "7 Things You Should Know About Me: Batts:
1. My name is Stella. (Oops, you knew that already.)
2. I'm eight years old.
3. I live in Somers, California, with my mom, my dad, my sister, Penny, and my baby brother, Marco.
4. My family owns a candy store called Batts Confections-we named it that because Batts is our last name and confections is a fancy word for candy.
5. Of all the things they sell at Batts Confections, fudge is my very favorite.
6. Some of my other favorite things are dolphins, the TV show Superstar Sam, and the color purple, since that was the color of my dress at Aunt Laura's wedding.
7. Okay this is number seven-did you know that this is my SEVENTH book, and did you know seven is a lucky number? I don't know why. But it doesn't matter, because it's time to get on with the story."

This book is the seventh in the series and currently there are 8 books available. In this book Stella discovers that secrets can be a bad thing. Even if the intent of the secret was good in can be very harmful. Stella deals with secrets about a pet that dies, a new2 surprise at their family store, and a secret project for a school assignment. Read and learn how she comes to terms with making a promise that in hindsight does not see that wise. And to some extent all of the secrets cause her problems, either at home, with her friends, in her class and more.

It was great reading a book that was so realistic. I think they will be great reads to share with my kids and friends of the family. I look forward to reading more of Stella's adventures and even trying some other books by Courtney Sheinmel.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More.

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, easy to read, feel good book that highlights the sensitive topic of secret keeping, the challenges that come with keeping secrets, the stress and the hurt that can come from being excluded from a secret. A very good book for young reader to teach them empathy for others and to see a situation from more viewpoints than just their own.

[AMY · Rating 5 out of 5]

169 pages. This time Stella and her dad try to take care of a sticky situation when Penny's goldfish dies. They try to replace it with another fish in order to avoid Penny having to deal with the loss. Also, there is a new thing at school with Stella and her friend having a secret and not letting anyone else in on it. Her dad also has a secret regarding his business. There are secrets all around and Stella is having to navigate on both sides of knowing and not telling...or not knowing. Girls will enjoy this realistic fiction series. Highly recommended for Grades 3-4.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stella learns valuable lessons about keeping secrets and how they can affect friendships and families.
She and her parents make the decision to replace Penny's goldfish and not tell her the original one died. She discovers it by reading Lucy's news article. Stella also keeps secrets about their class project and her other friends stop playing with her.
In the end, everything is resolved.

[Meg GlitteryOtters · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Chante · Rating 4 out of 5]

6 year old review - I love Stella Batts. Can I listen to it again

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this, the seventh title in the Stella Batts series, everyone has secrets. Stella's father has a secret about the candy store he owns and operates, and Stella and Lucy agree to keep their school project a secret from their classmates, and even, to some extent, from each other. Then, too, the whole family is keeping the demise of Penny's beloved goldfish Penny Jr. a secret too. Although secrets are made for keeping, sometimes keeping a secret can hurt others or make them feel left out as Stella learns when her best friend Evie wants to know the secret she and Lucy are keeping. Filled with shaded black, white, and gray illustrations of the characters, the book contains plenty of real-life situations from an interesting protagonist. This is a good series to include in classroom libraries.

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are my girls I will be reading this book to. This book is so good adults will enjoy reading to children. Later those children will enjoy reading it themselves.

Stella learns about keeping secrets - when to keep them, when to share them, and who to share them with. It is a hard concept for children to learn. I thought there were several good real life examples in this book.

I am interested in reading more of Stella Batts books.

[Kaytee · Rating 5 out of 5]

stella and her little sister have a new pet fish but the next day stellas little sisters fish was dead he talked about it to his wife to distract her and they went to get a new fish and got it home. stella had a project to do and she wrote about how the fish died then stellas little sister opened it because it had her initials and she found out about her dead fish and cried this book was sad because a fish died and it is pretty sad.

[Haneen]

Stella is really brave. This book is really good. This series was one of the first and best series I ever read.

[Shahzad Sulaman]

This was very exciting. And I loved it I had fun reading it