When I See My Dentist

These two photo-essays cover potentially threatening situations in a painlesseven funfashion. Thomas, an adorable four-year-old, has to have a check-up at his doctor's. Erica, also four, needs to have her teeth cleaned and X-rayed for cavities. The photographs convey, in ways no drawings could, what a doctor's and dentist's office look like, the myriad procedures that take place there, and the reasons behind those routines, with some of the hard words spelled phonetically in the margins or simply defined. Kuklin has included rather serious-looking pictures with less formal moments; this accounts for her reassuring tone, which neither white-washes the truth nor makes the visits sound too scary. Ages 3-5. (April)