by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 10, 2009   Last Updated: December 10, 2011

It's a humor book for children, filled with funny illustrations and a funny story. Its tone is obvious from the book's wild title - "This Whole Tooth Fairy Thing's Nothing But a Big Rip-Off." And the cartoon-y drawings by Thomas Payne never get in the way. (They look Sandra Boynton drawings filled with colored chalk.) He's teamed up with Lois G. Grambling, an experienced children's author, and together they keep the story entertaining.

Little Hippo is staying up, waiting for a visit from the tooth fairy. The tooth that he'd lost was very big, so he hopes the tooth fairy will leave an especially large reward. But it's a rainy night, and the tooth fairy has unfortunately forgotten her umbrella. "I should have checked the weather channel before I left," she says.

I love how this book finds humor by simply taking its premise seriously. The tooth fairy is real, but she's overworked. ("Wings are not easy to flutter when they are wet.") And she's actually catching a cold, but she struggles on to the hippo's house. He's anxiously checking under his pillow for a coin, and he mutters that "This whole Tooth Fairy thing's nothing but a rip-off." At the moment he says it, she's hovering directly outside his window. This is an especially funny drawing, since she's not a tiny fairy, but a full-sized human - filling up his window with her enormous bedraggled face.

Here the fractured fairy tale takes an even stranger turn. Usually no one gets to see the tooth fairy - but apparently you do if you make her mad. With her hands on her hips, she unloads on the poor hippo then looks sadly into the rainy night, dreading her final coin delivery. Soon she's gluing her wings onto the hippo's pajamas, and he's flying off into the rainy night. ("'It's easy,' said the Tooth Fairy. 'Just flutter.'") And somewhere in the silly story is a sideways message, since the child gets to leave a coin under the bed of his friend. "Cub Bear thought I was the Tooth Fairy," the hippo complains.

"Well tonight for him, you were," replies the Tooth Fairy, and she's grateful for the help.

And she's also left a shiny coin under his pillow. And now the hippo wants to help out Santa Claus, too. The tooth fairy says she sees Santa "Occasionally on business," and promises that she'll tell him about her helpful hippo friend. Frazzled parents may identify with the tooth fairy, who's delighted to share her workload and sneak a badly-needed nap.

But everyone should find this book genuinely funny - both its story and its pictures!

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