Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO

May 20, 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.

July 1, 2019

K-Gr 2-Tallulah isn't your normal tooth fairy; she's the CEO of all the tooth fairies! With her cool hand at the helm of her organization, everything runs smoothly until a child loses a tooth meant for retrieval, and Tallulah must find a solution. The first half focuses on her jet-setting persona and her weekly routine, which includes going to art museums and getting drinks with Mrs. Claus, while the second half reads more like a traditional picture book. While it's refreshing to see a woman of color not only represented as a classic fantasy figure, as they are often depicted exclusively as white, but also as a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur, arguably the text could have focused more on the plot and less on establishing the character. Still, parents will smirk at the gentle jabs to corporate culture that the book references. Illustrations are smooth and give a sleek modern feel to the piece, with images of teeth hidden throughout. VERDICT A fun, solid addition to contemporary fairy tale collections.-Peter Blenski, Hartland Public Library, WI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2019
A tooth-fairy mogul wrote the manual, but even the expert can be caught off guard. Tallulah, CEO of Teeth Titans Inc., gives readers a sneak peek into her glamorous life. The wry narrative mimics the tone of many an inspirational biography, informing readers that Tallulah works hard to strike "a healthy balance between the three Ps: passion, purpose, and what pays." From yoga to museum visits, Tallulah seems to have a full schedule, but she still makes time to hire and train tooth fairies for the entire world. Expert Tallulah has all the answers--or so she thinks until the night she gets a surprise from a little boy. Ballard has lost his tooth--literally--and leaves an explanatory note under his pillow in place of the missing item. This triggers an emergency board meeting that features remarkably realistic dialogue. Tom, a white man and the only board member who is not a woman of color, wears an #AllFairiesMatter T-shirt; his off-topic complaint about the lack of diversity makes an opening for important conversations with young readers. Tallulah is black and sports a voluminous purple Afro; Tom is the sole white character. Details in both Pizzoli's text (Tallulah's also the founder of the National Association for the Appreciation and Care of Primary Teeth, or NAACP-T) and Fabiani's matte illustrations (a series of enormous, Warhol-like prints of Tallulah adorns her walls) will set adult readers chuckling. Funny and provocative. (Picture book. 6-10)

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