A Trip to the Dentist

Aimed at preschoolers facing potentially scary ``firsts'', this book reveals in fold-out pages the answers to questions like, ``Who is going to weigh Joey? The nurse. What will Joey stand on? See if you can guess.'' Shown is a stool, a scale and a skateboard. Joey stands on the scale with a smiling Mom and nurse. This simple format introduces instruments of a typical check-up: scale, blood-pressure cuff, stethoscope, otoscope, tongue depressor and a syringe. Nothing more terrible than the injection is mentioned; in similar fashion, the dentist visit is only to clean and X-ray Annie's teeth. Both books work gently to familiarize children with medical routines, and, as such, they succeed, while Siracusa's pictures clarify Linn's aims. The books' drawbacks are excessive cheeriness and a lack of information (presented in a way that toddlers can understand) about why people visit doctors. But these are still straightforward and useful. Ages 2-5. (May)