The Tooth Fairy

Alison Mews is coordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

In Hamelin, 30 years after the Pied Piper has stolen all the children,
music has been forbidden. When Hannah arrives to live with her aunt and
uncle, she commits the unpardonable sin of singing and is banned from
the town. The young girl, abandoned and miserable, is befriended by a
ghostly rat and together they discover a strange group of tattered
musicians and their demonic Maestro. These, of course, are the stolen
children, now grown up, and the Pied Piper who spirited them away.
Mustering her courage, Hannah devises a musical plan that reunites the
townsfolk, restores the joy of music, and provides a happy ending for
herself and the Maestro.

The Tooth Fairy is an absurd tale in which Abigail, the Girl with the
Greatest Teeth in the World, decides that the Tooth Fairy must be
stopped from stealing children’s teeth. She sets off on a quest,
during which she encounters a motley assortment of unscrupulous men, and
she discovers the weird truth behind her odd grandfather’s
toothlessness and her own misguided mission. Abigail is a strong female
heroine in the traditional sense, without a lot of depth, but with an
adventurous nature, a stubborn streak, and a selfishness that is
absolved by a sacrificial act.

These two stories are indeed preposterous, with an old-fashioned
appeal. Their small size is deceptive, as they are not early chapter
books for emergent readers; rather, the lyrical writing and complex
vocabulary make them most appropriate for reading aloud to children.
Apparently, they have both been successfully adapted as musical puppet
plays, which have toured Canada. Highly recommended.