Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 20 MAY 2019

Giving the tooth fairy tongue-in-cheek professional legitimacy, Pizzoli (who has published numerous African folktales with her boutique company, The English Schoolhouse) offers a modish tale about Tallulah, founder and CEO of Teeth Titans Inc., for whom "looking after children's pearly whites" is more than just a job "it is her career." Sporting a purple-hued Afro and jewelry fashioned from teeth, the posh business mogul wisely balances her time: various mornings are spent chatting with her therapist, visiting teeth-centric museum exhibits, and practicing yoga, while afternoons are reserved for recruiting and training tooth-fairy employees. These sophisticated pastimes are less kid than adult targeted, until Tallulah, wearing night-vision glasses, begins her tooth-collecting rounds. What does the entrepreneur do when she hits an unprecedented snag in the form of a boy who has lost his lost tooth? She calls an emergency meeting with her tooth fairy board of directors, of course. Building on the narrative's playful satire, Fabiani's stylized matte cartoons incorporate some quirky flourishes: Tallulah entertains a tooth fairy in-training at a North Pole lounge, where an elf tends bar. A fun flight of fancy featuring an engagingly eccentric heroine. Ages 4 8.