TOOTH FAIRY IN TRAINING

Becoming a tooth fairy involves visits to many toothy creatures.

Tate, the titular tooth fairy–in-training, narrates the rhyming text as her big sister, May, teaches her how to retrieve kids’ teeth and leave them coins. The twist, telegraphed by the undersea imagery in the cover art, comes when May brings Tate to a lake because a “baby hippo needs a visit. / Not every child’s a human, is it?” Brave Tate perseveres through visits to a crocodile, a fierce-looking seal, and “a MASSIVE anaconda,” her expressive, light-brown face betraying the jitters underlying her bravery. The last visit is to a human child. “A little girl. I can’t go wrong,” narrates Tate, so of course, this is where drama ensues. It’s light drama, however, befitting the gentle, cartoon style of the illustrations, which give characters’ facial features a look similar to Crockett Johnson’s Harold (of purple-crayon fame). “I had to get caught by Melissa… / a doll-collecting fairy kisser,” Tate laments as she squirms in wakeful, white-appearing Melissa’s hands, the backdrop a bedroom filled with fairy dolls, a dollhouse, and other whimsical toys and décor. Tate’s magic wand does the trick of getting Melissa back to sleep, and then she and May return home, triumphant, to rest up for their next trip.

A fresh take on tooth-fairy lore.