ROTTEN TEETH

Pint-sized and shy, Melissa Herman can’t think of anything unusual or special about herself or her family. Certainly nothing worth bringing for show-and-tell. But her older brother Norman suggests that the most fascinating thing in their house will make everyone in Melissa’s class sit up and take notice—a jar of rotten teeth from their father’s dental practice. Fortunately, the results prove to be beyond Melissa’s wildest expectations. Many of the story’s elements flap loosely, rather than come together into a definite shape: her size, her shyness, her lack of imagination regarding the show-and-tell project, her dependence on her brother, and her subsequent transformation into a storyteller don’t really add up. Catrow’s humorous illustrations detail the odd events and unusual inhabitants at Melissa’s house and capture the chaos her project unleashes in the classroom. (Picture book. 4-8)