Melvin the Magnificent Molar is a children's book dedicated to helping your child realize the importance of clean, healthy teeth.  Melvin, being a molar, also helps your child to remember ALL of his teeth, not just the ones in the front.  It's a story that has many helpful hints for parents sprinkled in along the way too, such as how often dental checkups should occur, how much toothpaste is necessary to clean your child's teeth, how often to brush your child's teeth, etc.

I think this is a wonderful to book to read to your child right before they go to the dentist the first few times.  The book explains, in detail, every step that will happen to their teeth and how Melvin really likes it!  It also eludes to the tooth fairy throughout the book, yet never really explains who she is or what she does.

I'm sure your child will definitely be asking all about her as soon as you are finished reading this story.  The book tells why it is so important to brush your teeth in the morning as well as before bedtime, because the little green scummies are always out and about trying to turn Melvin green.  Finally, this book shows why the baby teeth are really very important and what their big job is!

Generally speaking, this is a pretty good children's book, but there were a few things that I didn't like about the book.  First, the story was a little long and my daughter lost interest before it was 3/4 of the way over.  Next, the tooth fairy appears throughout this entire book, yet it's never made clear why she's there and why she's important to the story or even what she does.  Also, I'm not too thrilled with the illustrations of the tooth fairy in this book.

There's nothing very "fairy" looking about her.  She's a brunette with a tiny red dress on that barely covers her rear-end.  On one page, she's even posing as a calendar pinup girl.  Personally, I think the tooth fairy should be portrayed as a little less coquettish.  Then, there were a few grammatical errors as well.  I'm probably a stickler for this, but for some reason misspellings smack me right in the face and I can't help but notice them.  For example, "Usually before we get all the way thru our Happy Tooth song" with "thru" being misspelled.  I actually notice this kind of thing in books all the time...don't the editors have spell check?

If you're looking to help motivate your child to brush their teeth (or at least allow you to do it for them), then I would recommend reading Melvin the Magnificent Molar to them.  Hopefully, they will want to help keep Melvin strong and healthy and will better understand why proper oral care is important.  I definitely plan on reading this to Riley again before we visit the dentist...THIS FRIDAY!  :)

If you'd like to purchase a copy of Melvin the Magnificent Molar for your little one, please go to www.JuliaCookOnline.com to order one.  The cost is $9.95 + tax and shipping.