Book Review: The Crocodile and the Dentist

Getting my son to brush his teeth is one of life’s great challenges. I’ve tried both the carrot and the stick and nothing, absolutely nothing could persuade him to brush his teeth. I did wonder if a story about a crocodile who had to go to the dentist might somehow encourage him, but only time will tell. This week we’ve been reading The Crocodile and the Dentist by Taro Gomi.

Book Review: The Crocodile and the Dentist

The Crocodile has a toothache but he’s afraid of the dentist. The dentist wants to help, but he’s afraid of the crocodile. The Crocodile and the Dentist soon learn to be brave and face their fears.

The Crocodile and the Dentist is a lovely, easy to read story with lots of repetition which I know from my own son, children like. This book is aimed at children aged 3-5 years and it’s a simple story that they will enjoy. I know I enjoyed it, especially the mirroring thoughts from both Crocodile and Dentist.

Author, Taro Gomi originally wrote and published this story in Japan in 1984. His style of illustration is eye-catching areas of textured colour on top of simple drawings. Taro Gomi one of Japan’s most successful children’s book illustrators, having illustrated over 400 children’s books over the years.

Book Review: The Crocodile and the Dentist

The Crocodile and the Dentist is full of simple humour and empathy. You can empathise with the Crocodile who has all of those teeth to look after, and the Dentist who has to look after all of those teeth.

It ends with a reminder to brush your teeth. You might escape a visit to the dentist if you do!

The Crocodile and the Dentist by Taro Gomi costs £12.99 in hardback. It’s published by Chronicle Books and it is available from a wide range of bookshops including Amazon.

Disclosure: We were sent a copy of The Crocodile and the Dentist for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Book Review: Lost My Name

If you have access to the internet (and if you’re reading this, I think the chances of that are high) you will probably have already heard of the children’s picture book ‘Lost My Name’. Lost My Name is a personalised book where the little boy or girl in the story has lost their name and goes on a magical adventure to rediscover it.

Along the way they meet a series of creatures – magical or otherwise, who one by one help the child to find their name again. The small boy (spoiler alert) is called BENJAMIN so it took some searching to find all the letters of his name, but by meeting B for Bear, E for Elephant and N for Narwhal (and so on) we discovered his name.

It is a beautifully illustrated book, with lots going on. Printed on nice thick paper with a matt finish (something I enjoy, yes I know I’m weird). The ‘Benjamin’ book was 42 pages long.

lost my name

It was an enjoyable adventure story which kept my four and a half year old interested throughout; he encountered creatures he already knew (bear, elephant etc) and new magical and mysterious creatures such as the narwhal, the nabarlek and an imp, as well as a jester and a mermaid. There was lots for us to talk about after we’d finished reading which is always the mark of a good children’s book I find.

He particularly enjoyed finding the letters in his name and got very excited each time we turned a page and there was another letter he recognised, which was lovely to see!

Over the last few years we’ve had quite a few personalised books, all of which have been extra special and he’s gone back to them over and over again because they are personalised and personal to him. Because having a personalised book is slightly more expensive than an off the shelf book, it is the kind of thing I’d buy him or another child as a present rather than an everyday book.

It is incredibly simple to create and order your own personalised book, simply type in the name you want and select the gender of the child and then head to checkout. You can even preview a copy online before you buy to make sure it’s exactly what you want.

Lost My Name costs £18.99 and can be ordered from their website. It is a beautiful book and I think well worth the money, especially as I know that he will choose it again and again and probably want to take it into school to show his teacher and his friends.

Lost My Name is a real magical story book, really well thought out, each one is unique and special and that’s the really great thing about personalised books. Lost My Name is a real gem. There’s nothing I don’t love about it.

Note: We were sent a copy of Lost My Name for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.