What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue
Tooth Fairy by Gregory Maguire
Imaginehaving as your first home an empty tuna fish can! Imagine yourself as an orphaned skibberee (tooth fairy) befriended by a tiger, menaced by a housecat, and adopted by a bird. Imagine further that you find yourself with amazing powers of language, deduction, and mathematical thinking. Such is the life of What-the-Dickens, the lonely skibberee who tumbles into a world of warring skibbereen colonies, a lonely ten-year-old boy, and a host of tooth-related challenges in this fall’s “must-read” selection from Candlewick Press.Gregory Maguire’s What-the-Dickens is a beautifully-crafted, imaginative novel for any age group. Told as a story-within-a story, What-the-Dickens is a tale of a rogue tooth fairy who experiences love, loss, friendship, and fear all within a few hours of his birth. The story is told by Gabe, cousin to three children stranded by a dangerous storm, as an attempt to keep them distracted from their plight. As the two stories unfold, they begin to intersect in interesting and unpredictable ways.We highly recommend this book as a read-aloud for younger children, a delightful independent read for upper-elementary students and middle-schoolers, and a well-crafted writing model for older students. Even the teachers will enjoy this fanciful tale!