Product Description

"Help, I've been robbed!
It'sth a disthasthter!"

Grandpa's teeth, handmade by the finest Swiss craftsman, are gone -- stolen from his bedside table! Grandpa suspects anyone who doesn't smile widely enough to prove that their teeth are their own. Soon everyone in town is smiling -- all the time -- and their ghastly grins are frightening the tourists away. Can the culprit be caught before the whole town cracks up

Popular Australion cartoonist Rod Clement, illustrator of Edward The Emu and Edwina The Emu by Sheena Knowles, has created a rollicking whodunit with a surprise ending that will have readers grinning from ear to ear.

00-01 CA Young Reader Medal Masterlist

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5977 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-15
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .16" h x 7.80" w x 10.00" l, .28 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3?Grandpa's very expensive, custom-made false teeth have been stolen. The police are alerted and an artist's rendering of the missing choppers is posted as "wanted" all over town. Even though "Unsolved Crimes" broadcasts a reenactment on television and dentures are found in the mailbox, none are the missing ones. Grandpa suspects everyone, so townsfolk smile widely to show that their teeth are their own. Finally, people of the town rally to Grandpa's cause and kick in to replace his teeth. Now everyone is grinning, including Grandpa's always dour dog, Gump, who smiles a very "familiar" smile. The text reinforces the humor in the pictures, displaying Grandpa's distinct toothless talk, "It'sth much more stherious. It'sth my teeth?they've been sthtolen." Clement's slightly exaggerated characters are perfectly suited to this toothy tale. Pictures extend the text as evidenced in the search of Grandpa's messy room where everything from apple cores to bugs are found, but not teeth. Grandpa's Teeth is a hoot.?Susan M. Moore, Louisville Free Public Library, KY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ages 4^-8. It's a "disthasthter" when Grandpa's false teeth are stolen. For one thing, it makes him talk like a teakettle. For another, these were no ordinary dentures. "Thosthe teeth were sthpecial," he whistles, "handmade by the finestht Sthwissth craftsthmen." Despite Grandpa's appearance on the TV show Unsolved Crimes, the police remain baffled, and soon the town is in an uproar. For everyone is suspect, and the only way to prove you're not the thief is to grin broadly enough to show all your own choppers. The sight of so many dazzling ivories is enough to scare the tourists away, and the specter of economic ruin looms. After all this inspired nonsense, how Grandpa finally gets some new teeth is a tad anticlimactic. And anyone who has read William Joyce's A Day with Wilbur Robinson (1990) won't be a bit surprised by the identity of the thief. But Australian cartoonist Clement's pictures are a hoot and a half, and his story has enough sly touches to keep readers grinning . . . toothily! Michael Cart

From Kirkus Reviews
A perfectly silly story with a whopping visual punchline sure to delight young listeners and readers. Grandpa's teeth have disappeared from the glass at his bedside. He can't speak properly, and the teeth are nowhere to be found. The narrator, his sister, and his parents search Grandpa's room--a particularly well-realized creation with its cobwebs and underbed detritus-- but to no avail. The police are called in, and while Grandpa and his faithful dog check a line-up of disreputable characters (and Mrs. Carbuncle, whose teeth don't fit properly), the whole town starts smiling, gruesomely, to prove that their teeth are their own. This begins to scare the tourists, so a collection is taken up, Grandpa and Mrs. Carbuncle are fitted with new teeth, and the false-teeth thief is unmasked on the last page. The fully modeled, highly detailed caricatures of faces, bodies, and furniture will elicit giggles, while the inherent humor of the situation is milked for all it's worth. (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.