Reviewed by Dannielle Viera
Hally Toe-Siss loves the fairy dust made from kids’ teeth because he can use it to cast lots of silly spells. But when he realises that he has run out of fairy dust before he’s had the chance to perform a party spell for the Fairy Queen’s birthday, he doesn’t know what to do. Eventually, he decides to find a wobbly tooth and pull it out – but the child accidentally swallows it. Then he steals a grandma’s dentures and turns them into a toothy throne for the Queen. He’s rewarded with a large supply of fairy dust, which he uses to make a new set of teeth for the grandma.
Kathy Creamer turns the traditional notion of the nice tooth fairy completely upside down with her impish protagonist, and kids aged five to nine will laugh at every mischievous thing he does. Clever character names – Hally Toe-Siss, Ginger Vitus, Pearly White, Denton – add an extra-entertaining layer to the toothsome tale, and readers will cheer when Hally Toe-Siss brushes aside his naughtiness to show his sweet nature at the end.
Kathy’s vibrant illustrations are brimming with delicious details, from the Queen’s molar crown to the pot of gold filled with coins from around the world. Youngsters will pore over the delightfully diverse faces of the fairies as they fly off to visit their children, and giggle at the jellybeans jumping all over the page. Perhaps the most memorable image is the one from inside Denton’s mouth – the scale and perspective are jaw-dropping!
Rather
than dully drilling home the virtue of cleaning your choppers, The Bad Tooth
Fairy nibbles on the ideas of adaptability and recompense in a light and
lively way. This unexpected but fun focus will put a smile on readers’ dials.
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