THE TEENY TINY TEACHER

The scary story of the teeny tiny woman has been expanded into an explanatory tale that works well on its own but without the original story’s pounce of surprise. Here a teeny tiny teacher is the heroine, and the setting is her tiny classroom. On a walk in the park with her students, the teacher finds a bone, which she pockets and then forgets. She doesn’t remember it until a spooky voice from the closet startles her students by demanding the bone back in louder and louder tones. As in the original story, the teeny woman finally replies loudly, “TAKE IT!” Unlike the original, that’s not the end of the story. The closet door pops open, and a ghost nabs the bone for his ghost puppy, outside the school. Although this version of the tale has lost some of the delicious fright of its parent tale, known for making listeners jump, it could easily become a story-hour favorite. Roche’s friendly drawings ingeniously indicate the diminutive size of the teeny tiny teacher and her teeny tiny students by showing domino-topped tables, and stools made of dice—it’s as if the Borrowers have landed in school. (Picture book. 5-8)