Common Sense Note
Steig's artwork, with its cartoon-strip clarity and soft colors, is inviting to the eye, and his story has both the pacing and expectancy to keep readers absorbed.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Peter Lewis
Few writers rival Steig when it comes to short but compelling stories. His work is gentle, yet he keeps the reader's imagination hopping with clever twists of plot and resourceful, often courageous, actions by characters. Steig doesn't shrink from challenging words--"the fox caressed the new tooth with his tongue"--and at times they can be outright demanding. But his humor, which is tinder-dry, guarantees an attentive audience.
Steig's artwork is lyrical, washed with color, and imbued with a tangible presence. One four-year-old kept touching the page as if to see whether the images, cartoony as they are, were real. The characters float on the white background of the page, which sets off their expressions like firecrackers. And what marvelous expressions they are, signaling to the reader exactly how a character is feeling.
Plot Summary:
Never trust a fox! Mouse dentist Doctor De Soto and his able assistant wife don't, but they do take pity on the wily one that pleads for them to yank his rotten, aching tooth. The ungrateful beast's ensuing plans to eat the mice are thwarted in author/illustrator William Steig's typically imaginative fashion.
Related Books:
Steig wrote a sequel, Doctor De Soto Goes to Africa, and he has turned out one brilliant book after another--including many award-winners. Another writer/illustrator who works along the same lines is James Stevenson. See his Could Be Worse! and numerous other titles. For a video including a trip to the dentist try Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Volume 4.
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