Book Review: The Tooth Fairy by Judd Palmer

Book:  The Tooth Fairy (Preposterous Fables for Unusual Children #1) by Judd Palmer, Bayiux Arts, Inc., 2002, 120 pages.

Source:  library.

I was attracted to this book in the library because of the series name, Preposterous Fables for Unusual Children and I thought that my eight year old son would enjoy reading it.  We ended up reading it together, and it was fun.  It is a fairly short book with nice illustrations by the author and quite small pages.   

The Tooth Fairy is about a twelve year old girl named Abigail, who has The Greatest Teeth in the World.  She lives with her Grandfather who has no teeth at all.  Abigail has never lost any teeth because her Grandfather will not let the Tooth Fairy near the house.  However, one day, Abigail gets a loose tooth and is determined to find the Tooth Fairy's castle, so she sets out on her adventure.

This book incorperates many of the traditional elements of fairy tales, but is still an original story.  I liked how determined and self sufficient Abigail was - she saw a problem and set out to solve it.  Her Grandfather is a funny character, sitting toothless in his attic with his many birds, but trying to protect Abigail in his way.

Both my son and I really enjoyed reading this book.  It is easy to read, but still has a good vocabulary as well as a bit of an old fashioned feel to it.  Abigail has lots of adventures that are fun and exciting for kids to read.  Also, there a cute moral at the end of the book about resisting the nature of things. 

The story started off as a puppet show by the author and has the kind of adventure and suspense that kids starting to get into chapter books, probably grades two to four, are sure to enjoy.