Demon Dentist
1900
- humorous stories
- dentists
- children's stories
- teeth
- juvenile fiction
- fear
- fiction
- children's fiction
- dentistas
- ficción juvenil
The story
This New York Times bestseller from David Walliams, the UK’s #1 bestselling children’s author and “the heir to Roald Dahl” (The Spectator), launched his books stateside in a big way! Walliams makes going to the dentist a wacky adventure with his signature humor—this is one dentist appointment you don’t want to miss. Something strange is happening in Alfie's town. Instead of shiny coins from the Tooth Fairy, kids are waking up to dead slugs, live spiders, and other dreadfully icky things under their pillows. Who would do something so horrific? Alfie is sure that Miss Root, the creepy new dentist in town, is behind it all. There's nothing Alfie hates more than going to the dentist, but to solve this mystery, he may have to book a dreaded appointment….
What it’s like
Bright, cartoonish comic energy with a grubby, slightly grotesque edge: the mood of a children's book illustrated with big gleeful grins, wobbling teeth and drawings of slugs and spiders spilling out from under pillows. The voice is chatty and loud, jumping between short punchy sentences and running jokes, so it reads quickly and feels like being read aloud to in a bustling classroom or a bedtime voice doing silly accents. Think school-holiday afternoons, a car journey where the kids are squabbling, or a lazy weekend with a child on the sofa. Pacing is brisk, with short chapters that end on cliffhangers, and the register stays playful even when things turn creepy: the fear is spooky-around-the-edges rather than frightening, a mild shiver of "ew" and a dash of suspense. Alfie is a boy who dreads the dentist and slowly gets pulled into facing his fear to uncover the truth, a bit of growing courage told with plenty of self-deprecating laughs. Violence is absent; the nastiness is limited to icky creatures and a sinister-but-comic villain, with no gore. A gentle, funny read for young readers, reluctant readers, and grown-ups who want something light and silly to share.
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