Sure to win over young fairy lovers about to lose their first teeth.
Tired of tooth brushing battles? Try tempting your early grade schooler with this debut picture book and plush set in the tradition of Elf on the Shelf.
If you think there’s only one tooth fairy, think again: “The head tooth fairy’s job is just impossible to do. / So she has a school of fairy friends to help her get to you.” According to this delightfully illustrated picture book, every child has a tooth fairy in training assigned to him or her to help keep an eye on tooth brushing habits. These fairies have to report back to the fairy boss and let her know whether the child is doing a good job; they also note what the child is interested in, so the fairies can plan the best gift for when those teeth fall out. Once the first loose tooth falls out, the fairy can take it back to Fairyland and become an official tooth fairy. The book has spaces for personalization, including an illustration where the child’s name can be placed on a tooth cup and a space for the child to name her fairy. The final page offers a tooth chart, where the date, tooth number, and surprise left by the fairy can all be listed. The child-friendly illustrations feature both children and fairies of different genders and ethnicities, and the text often becomes part of the illustration, with big, bold letters encouraging beginning readers to participate in lap reading. The magic of tooth fairy presents has its usual appeal and is presented here without too much emphasis on the size of the gift (the suggested range is “a coin or special toy”). Some parents may be frustrated with the spying-plush-toy technique of discipline, which, à la Elf on the Shelf and Mensch on a Bench, implies that a toy will leave the house to report a child’s behavior to a disciplinarian; there’s a bit of a Big Brother mentality there. Nevertheless, some parents may find that the technique offers much-needed relief from tooth brushing woes. The suggested price point for the boxed set is quite high in comparison to similar kits, and it offers no personalization of the doll, but the production quality of both the book (with its glittered cover and thick matte pages) and the plush toy are equally high.
Sure to win over young fairy lovers about to lose their first teeth.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-28812-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Teeth Fairies
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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