APRIL AND ESME, TOOTH FAIRIES

Fantasy and reality merge as two spunky tooth fairies in an Australian suburb complete their first assignment with aplomb. When seven-year-old April Underhill and her younger sister Esme agree to retrieve Daniel Dangerfield's front milk tooth, their parents worry they are too young for their first solo mission. Reluctantly acquiescing, the Underhills dispatch the girls with a string carrier bag for the coin plus a warning that Daniel must not see them. Negotiating the congested motorway and tricky air currents, the teeny girls descend on wee wings to 3 Cornflower Terrace, follow the trail of toys to Daniel's room and dive into his water glass to fetch the tooth. All goes smoothly until Daniels wakes, forcing the girls to text their mother for advice. Delicate ink, watercolor and pastel illustrations provide humorous, incongruous details of the winged Underhills' bucolic existence in a flower-filled thatched cottage adjacent the trash-lined motorway. Sporting cell phones, jeans and even a tattoo, the modern Underhills innocently continue their tooth-fairy traditions despite the less-than-magical outside world. So very charming, touching and heartwarming. (Picture book. 5-8)