Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Starred Review It's easy to miss the very beginning of this story, which starts before the title page. April, a seven-year-old fairy, gets a call on her cell phone. A boy has lost his tooth. Can April come pick it up, his grandma wonders? Well, no. April and sister Esme are too young for that. But when the grandma insists, they decide to give it a go. At first, their parents put up a fight, but the sisters remind them that back in the day, fairies started young. And so, packed with plenty of advice and cautions, the girls set out into the night, encountering the wind and an owl, until they drop down at Daniel's house. They find the tooth, almost get caught, must make some crucial decisions, are tempted by Grandma's false teeth, and return in one piece, a rite of passage now finished. There's so much wonderful whimsy here, it's hard to know what to praise first. As always, a major treat is Graham's detail-filled artwork, here punctuated by a fairy toilet made from an egg cup and ceiling decorations of hanging teeth. But Graham also slyly covers some interesting issues as well: the cocoon in which parents like to keep their kiddies, alternative families, and the pride and accomplishment children feel with a job well done. Fresh and lots of fun.

Horn Book

Tooth fairy siblings April and Esme convince their parents that they're old enough to collect their very first tooth (Mom: "Send me a text if you need to"). Young audiences will linger over the detailed illustrations that bring to life Graham's gentle tale: inside the family's cottage, teeth dangle like wind chimes, the bathtub's a milk pitcher, and the sink is a thimble.

Kirkus Reviews

Fantasy and reality merge as two spunky tooth fairies in an Australian suburb complete their first assignment with aplomb. When seven-year-old April Underhill and her younger sister Esme agree to retrieve Daniel Dangerfield's front milk tooth, their parents worry they are too young for their first solo mission. Reluctantly acquiescing, the Underhills dispatch the girls with a string carrier bag for the coin plus a warning that Daniel must not see them. Negotiating the congested motorway and tricky air currents, the teeny girls descend on wee wings to 3 Cornflower Terrace, follow the trail of toys to Daniel's room and dive into his water glass to fetch the tooth. All goes smoothly until Daniels wakes, forcing the girls to text their mother for advice. Delicate ink, watercolor and pastel illustrations provide humorous, incongruous details of the winged Underhills' bucolic existence in a flower-filled thatched cottage adjacent the trash-lined motorway. Sporting cell phones, jeans and even a tattoo, the modern Underhills innocently continue their tooth-fairy traditions despite the less-than-magical outside world. So very charming, touching and heartwarming. (Picture book. 5-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Graham (How to Heal a Broken Wing) serves up a sweetly comic adventure starring a family of tooth fairies. Seven-year-old April Underhill has been summoned by cellphone to perform her very first nighttime tooth collection. She and her six-year-old sister, Esme, persuade their concerned parents that they are up to the task and set off into the night. Courage, pluck, and derring-do guide them most of the way%E2%80%94but a quick text message from Mommy ensures that the girls add the proper finishing touch to the job. Graham excels at blending nostalgic family stories with a contemporary sensibility. As always, there's plenty of story to be gleaned from his airy ink-and-watercolor compositions. The Underhills live in a tiny fairy house near a tree stump. All members of the clan have crisp white wings%E2%80%94even the dog%E2%80%94and all are dressed in modern clothing and use cellphones and environmentally friendly string bags in their work. A mix of spot art, comic panels, and spreads invite readers into this magical but never truly unfamiliar world. Ages 5%E2%80%937. (Oct.)

School Library Journal (Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

K-Gr 2 Times have changed. Tooth fairies now have cell phones. Males wear jeans and tie their hair back in ponytails. Females use blow dryers. And so it happens one day that a (human) Grandma specifically asks for April and Esme to make their first-ever "tooth visit" to her grandson. Mom and Dad think they're too young, but eventually are persuaded to let the young sprites fly off to Daniel's home. "Send me a text if you need to," says Mom. After an uneventful, but windy flight, the pair lands at the boy's home on Cornflower Terrace. Sneaking in, they successfully retrieve his tooth and leave a nice coin in its place. Graham's trademark ink-and-watercolor illustrations are whimsical and delightful at times, but the story is weak. It is never quite explained how Grandma even knew about the fledgling fairies or why she wanted them to make the official visit. A supplemental purchase. Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA