Dad, Are You The Tooth Fairy?
PreSchool-Grade 2–Gaby likes losing his baby teeth because it means a visit from Gwyneth, his own personal tooth fairy. However, older children have planted the seeds of doubt regarding the existence of not only the tooth fairy, but also of superheroes, fairy-tale characters, and the Easter Bunny. Gaby questions his father, saying, I need the absolutely total honest truth.… Dad promises the only honest answer I can give and then proceeds to spin a convoluted tale about a time when dinosaurs and dodo birds walked the Earth alongside wizards, unicorns, and fairies. As people began to take control of the world, the magic began to fade. The last remaining fairy promised to speak through parents and leave treasures for children as long as they believe. This poorly written story is tediously long and wordy, replete with sentence fragments as well as sentence after sentence beginning with and or but. The garishly colored cartoons resemble nightmarish hallucinations, as opposed to a fantasy realm that any youngster would care to visit. For a classic title on the topic, stay with Lucy Bate'sLittle Rabbit's Loose Tooth(Random, 1988).–Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.