Author(s): Peter Barron

Picture Books

If you get up close, does it smell like you're down-wind of a herd of cows which have been grazing for weeks on a diet of rotting cabbage? Does the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth make you feel guilty? Fear not. It's not unusual to feel this way because all parents face a daily battle to get their children to brush their teeth properly and to stop them eating too many sweets. Black-toothed Ruth Black is a story which tells of the terrible things which may happen if children fail to brush their teeth properly. Ruth is a little girl who won't heed her parents' warnings about cleaning her teeth so, instead of the Tooth Fairies, she is visited one night by the evil Tooth Devils and flown to their ivory castle. It is another spine-tingling adventure in the Monstrous Morals series of stories aimed at scaring children out of their wits - and their bad habits. As always, there's a happy ending but Black-Toothed Ruth Black has to grit her teeth and learn an important lesson first. With the usual eye-catching illustrations and ingenious rhymes, parents and children will love this brush with dark side.