The Tooth Book (Bright & Early Books(R)) [Hardcover]

Theodore Lesieg (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bright & Early Books(R)

Illus. in full color. "Rhymes, in typical LeSieg style, about who has teeth, who doesn't and how to keep the ones you have. Roy McKie's bright cartoons and the text's rhythms will make this popular with the missing-tooth set."--School Library Journal.  

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Illus. in full color. "Rhymes, in typical LeSieg style, about who has teeth, who doesn't and how to keep the ones you have. Roy McKie's bright cartoons and the text's rhythms will make this popular with the missing-tooth set."--School Library Journal.  

About the Author

Theodor Seuss Geisel -- better known to millions of his fans as Dr. Seuss -- was born the son of a park superintendent in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1904. After studying at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and later at Oxford University in England, he became a magazine humorist and cartoonist, and an advertising man. He soon turned his many talents to writing children's books, and his first book -- And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street -- was published in 1937. His greatest claim to fame was the one and only The Cat in the Hat, published in 1957, the first of a hugely successful range of early learning books known as Beginner Books. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (August 12, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039484825X
• ISBN-13: 978-0394848259
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,580,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Preschool Reading Education About Teeth and Teething!, February 3, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tooth Book (Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners) (Hardcover)

Adults can quickly forget that children spend much of their time from ages 2 through 10 either getting teeth or losing their baby teeth. It is seldom a pleasant experience (except perhaps if a generous tooth fairy is involved), and must make a child feel like it will never end. Dr. Seuss (writing under his pen name of Theo. LeSieg, an anagram of Geisel) has created the world's best book for helping children learn about teeth, teething, and how to read. What a great gift for each generation of youngsters!

The book is conveniently organized into the kind of questions a reporter would ask.

Who has teeth? These include red-headed uncles, policemen, zebras, unicycle riders, camels and their riders, and little girls named Ruthie.

Where are there teeth? You will find them on mountain tops, in the air, underground, east, west, north, south, and in a lion's mouth.

Why are there teeth? "They come in handy when you chew." But they are also useful for smiling, work (especially if you are an acrobat and hold someone by your teeth), and speech.

Who doesn't have teeth? The snails and jelly fish are sadly bereft.

What about peoples' teeth? You will grow 2 sets, with 32 in the second set. And you will not get any more, so you'd better take care of them. So don't chew trees like a beaver, or use your teeth to open bottles, or eat sweet junk food ("Billy Billings [has] fifty fillings.").

For you, they will always be "handy when you smile. So keep your teeth around awhile."

"And never bite your dentist . . . your teeth's best friend. Bite someone else instead."

The humorous treatment of the tooth subject will help intrigue your child. You can expect to get questions about why all of these toothy things occur, so you should probably look up the answers before you introduce the book to optimize the educational opportunity. Or talk to your dentist or dental hygienist on your next visit.

The illustrations are not by Dr. Seuss in this new edition, but they are wonderfully done. The teeth are large, in the center of your attention, and beautiful. This serves to underscore the message of having teeth be a positive part of everyone's life.

As a prereader, this book is good for repetition. The words "tooth" and "teeth" are almost everywhere. This can help your child learn to identify those words. When that identification can be done, you can point to the words in the story when you come to them and your child can "read" them to you then aloud. You can eventually add other words that are repeated like "smile" and the articles like "a" and "the."

The illustrations can add clues to allow you to help your youngster identify other words like "red" and "trombones."

After you have finished enjoying this story, I suggest that at some point you begin to ask parallel questions about other parts of the body. This approach can help expand your child's awareness of what makes humans different and what is good about that.

Sink your teeth into this learning opportunity to become a better parent . . . and you'll have a real mouthful! And your child's mouthful will be healthier and your child more literate, too!!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Theo. LeSieg on the importance of caring for your teeth, June 4, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tooth Book (Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners) (Hardcover)

You start off reading "The Tooth Book" wondering why Dr. Seuss, writing under his Theo. LeSieg pseudonym, is taking so much time answering the question "Who has teeth?" That is because the answer seems rather obvious and even more so when this book gets to the importance of teeth to chewing, smiling, speaking, and trapeze artists who are supporting their partners by something they are holding on to with their teeth. Then the book touches on a few animals that do not have teeth, and again you find yourself asking "So what?" At which point the book springs it trap and we find out that "The Tooth Book" is not only entertaining, it is (surprise, surprise) educational as well.

The final section of this book is devoted to the idea of protecting your teeth because you only get two sets. Even though kids will lose their first set of teeth, they do not get the same deal on their second set so keeping them in good shape would be a good thing. Some of the advice is, as you would expect from Dr. Seuss, a bit absurd (do not use your teeth to chomp down trees like beavers), but most of it is on target, even if the book does not go into much depth. The illustrations, as is usually the case with "LeSeig," who writes more about the real world than Dr. Seuss, is by a different illustrator than the author, in this case Roy McKie. Dr. Seuss does wonderfully strange animals and people, while McKie illustrates them in a more conventional manner.

"The Tooth Book" is one of the Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners. However, obviously you want to pick your moment before introducing this particular book to your young child. Even when you kid starts losing their baby teeth it might be too soon for them to read this one, but certainly when you are teaching them to care for their permanent teeth this is a book that will be helpful in giving them an idea of what to expect. "LeSieg" does not provide specific things for kids to do to help keep their teeth in good shapes, but that information can certainly come from other sources. But he does at least get beginning beginner readers to think favorable about dental care (and even dentists as well).

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wonderful World of Dr. Seuss, April 4, 2000

By 

"bucklerzahar" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tooth Book (Bright & Early Books(R)) (Hardcover)

My son was brought up on Dr. Seuss Books! He is now 15 and they were the only kid's books he wouldn't let me give away. As for the tooth book, the pages are mostly ripped out. As he was teething, and in great pain, I later found his 'beloved' tooth book with almost every page torn in half. You can figure out why. It is a wonderful book.