Such fun! | The Bear's Toothache

Early McPhail Bears Reading! | The Bear's Toothache | David McPhail

books:


	• The Bear's Toothache David McPhail Little, Brown Young Readers, 1988 - 32 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

made me laugh

Like the other reviewer, I laughed out loud when we read this book. The depiction of the father is hilarious.

I really wish, however, that we had a larger hardcover version of this story because the illustrations are fantastic.

Such fun!

I read to children weekly at Border's Bookstore and they love this book! It is so much fun to read and the children really get involved in the dilemma the boy has: trying to repair the bear's toothache. The portrayal of Dad is hilarious and all too familiar to parents. It is a delightful book your child will not soon forget!

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Early McPhail Bears Reading!

This appealing little book is an early effort by prolific author/illustrator David McPhail. Although the colors seem somewhat muddied (I have a copy published much earlier than the one available from Amazon.com), and McPhail's illustrations perhaps not his best, there is an unmistakable "McPhail look" to the bodies and faces that he draws. The book has a great opening: A young boy in bed hears a giant "OOOOOO" outside his window, the `0's floating through the dark sky like a train of fluorescent cheerios. He looks out his window to discover its source: "It was a bear [the sentence continues on the next page] with a toothache.

In typical McPhail fashion, the unusual and the impossible become the ordinary. This is a large part of the book's humor and excitement: "I invited him in [next page] and examined his teeth." The boy's efforts to extract the hurting tooth results in much bearish behavior, and that spells minor disasters in the small house (e.g., the bear eats all the food; a lamp is broken). The boy's father gets involved, but only briefly:

"'What happened to the lamp?' he asked.
`It fell on the floor,' I answered.
`Oh,' he said, and he went back to bed."

McPhail wisely makes this a private relationship between bear and boy only; there are no adults to negotiate or help. In this way, the little boy acts like a much bigger boy, and kids will appreciate this touch. The low-tech, crosshatched illustrations also add to the book's intimacy. There's a successful resolution (it archetypal pre-dentist fashion, the bear's tooth is tied to a rope...), and "The Bear's Toothache" concludes in the same unassuming manner in which it began. A fun book for small fry, although it appears that (in my older edition) the color reproduction doesn't quite meet the usual high standards of Greenwillow Publishing. Still, highly recommended!

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great author

I love this author. This is just one of his many wonderful books. He has a way of using few words but communicating so much story. I think, The Puddle, by McPhail is my favorite.

cutie pie

This book I really enjoyed, it really sparked my interest. I hope that many people read this book and enjoy it, like I did.

When he discovers a bear with a toothache outside his window, a little boy tries to think of ways of removing the tooth.

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