No Tooth Required? Pete the Cat and the Lost Tooth by James and Kimberly Dean

PETE LOST A TOOTH!
"PUT IT UNDER YOUR PILLOW," HIS MOM SAYS.
"THE TOOTH FAIRY WILL COME!"

And it works! Pete puts the tooth under his pillow, and closes his eyes to sleep--and--COOL!--The Tooth Fairy appears, big blue eyes, azure tutu, wand, and wings and all.

Not only does she have his coin, but she has a job for him. She's too busy to get around to all the lost teeth before morning, so she deputizes Pete as a tooth fairy temp employee. He gets big yellow wings and a Tooth Fairy T-shirt--and his very own list of tooth-losers--all of them his friends.

Pete's first customer is Callie Cat, a sleeping beauty if he's ever seen one, and Pete takes the tooth and leaves a coin without waking her. Pete flutters on to Alligator's window and finds him snoring away, with one big bicuspid under his pillow.

CAREFUL! IT'S SHARP!

Carefully putting a coin under Alligator's pillow, Pete flies on to the last name on his list--Gus the Platypus, his favorite percussionist. But there's a problem. There is no tooth under Gus the Platypus' pillow. Pete searches all around, but there is not a tooth anywhere!

DOES PETE PANIC? NOPE!

There's only one thing to do. Pete bends the rules a little bit. He wakes Gus up and asks him where he's put his lost tooth. Gus puzzles at Pete's costume, but opening his mouth wide, he points out what should be obvious.

"PLATYPUSES DO NOT HAVE TEETH!"

Pete gets it that Gus is just trying to get in on the tooth-fairy fun, so Pete puts the customary coin under his pillow and returns to rendezvous with a very tired Tooth Fairy, ready for her shift to end.

It's No Problem and fist bumps all around, in James and Kimberly Dean's Pete the Cat and the Lost Tooth (My First I Can Read) (HarperCollins). Author-illustrator Dean is the author of over 100 picture books and beginner reader books with their can-do theme and laid-back philosophy of life, and this one is just right for a readership who are busy shedding first teeth. The two Deans always provide a few nuggets of knowledge along with their easy reading practice, not to mention the positive view of life which comes with the fun.

For yet another Tooth Fairy tale, pair this one with one of Adam Wallace's How-To series, How to Catch the Tooth Fairy. (See review here).