The Ghostly Tales of Mr. Tooth

Lorraine Douglas is youth services co-ordinator at the Winnipeg Public
Library.

One day in the fall, Hal is waiting for his dad to pick him up after
school when he meets a school crossing guard, Mr. Tooth. Halloween is
coming and Hal hasn’t decided what to wear, so Mr. Tooth starts to
tell him ghost stories each day after school to help him decide. The
eight ghost stories tell of the Phantom of the Orchestra, Lady Godyevor,
Hairy Hands, the Film Director, Old Samuel, the Bell Ringer, and several
other characters. On Halloween, Hal discovers that Mr. Tooth was really
the ghost of a school crossing guard who died saving a student on
Halloween night two years earlier.

The device of having one character tell another the tales results in no
character interest and little plot development. These stories lack the
suspense of other novels for the upper elementary level, such as
Bell’s Five Days of the Ghost or Bedard’s A Darker Magic. Some of
the tales have a pedantic edge; for example, there are explanations of
the roles of church officials that impede the telling. Each story is
illustrated with an unappealing line drawing. Not recommended.