I Want My Tooth (Little Princess) by Tony Ross
| I Want My Tooth (Little Princess) by Tony Ross | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Magda Healey
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| Summary: Another childhood rite of passage from a well loved series, with a hygenic message and a joke at the end. Recommended for older toddlers and preschoolers, though not the best in the series. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: September 2007 |
| Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 978-0007243655 | |
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I want My Tooth is another of the seemingly interminable and perennially popular series of picture books that depict the early-childhood rites of passage via the medium of a cheeky and rather troublesome little Princess.
The book has the signature Ross cartoons; with an instantly recognisable style mixing vicious satire and drawings of a 4 year old. There is a lot of pictorial humour in the books, and a lot of it would not be accessible for an average toddler or preschooler, but will provide a welcome distraction to a parent reading them, while there is also plenty of detail that would appeal to the children. The lack of concessions towards prettiness is very refreshing too.
The princess herself is a cheeky, stubborn girl determined to get her way, with a tendency to screaming tantrums and stamping her feet. She is, in other words, very reminiscent of a typical toddler and the Royal Household is nothing like a family, with parents, the Admiral and the Prime Minister (grandpa and uncle perhaps?) and so on. All the books are very aptly titled on the variation of I Want... : delaying gratification and reconciling desires with reality are, indeed, major developmental tasks that children have to accomplish from toddlerhood onwards. It takes time (some never completely manage) and a lot tantrums to grow up even a little bit: The Little Princess books accompany the children on that painful road.
In the current volume the Princess gets a wobbly tooth, and despite the best care she takes of it, it falls out. The princess is inconsolable, until she finds it...in her baby brother's mouth (and which mother wouldn't welcome a sight of a baby at first tooth age sitting on a potty!).
I Want My Tooth is one of the books with a slight mismatch between the target audience and the rites of passage mentioned above and the actual topic. In the quest to continue the series, Ross seems to have moved from potty training, dummy removal and arrival of siblings to wobbly teeth. Wobbly teeth, however, are a primary school phenomenon, not a feature of toddlerhood. I don't really mind, but the in the wild imagination can't help but see I Don't Want My Period! (Little Princess) book looming on the event horizon.
Still, I Want My Tooth has all the charms of the Little Princess series (she's mellowed a bit since the arrival of the brother, by the way) and combined with a pedagogical message regarding dental hygiene, comes recommended by the Bookbag who thinks it will be enjoyed for its humour and vitality by children aged 2 to 3.5.
Thanks to the publishers for sending this volume to The Bookbag.
Those who like the Princess' graphical style, might enjoy Emperor of Absurdia by Chris Riddell.
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