The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy

What’s a Dinosaur Tooth Fairy to do when all the dinosaurs are extinct? Working in gouache, debut illustrator Sanchez pictures this heroine as a green tyrannosaur with a tutu, see-through crown, and doe eyes. In one particularly funny scene, the fairy reflects on the good old days when “the world was hot” and “the teeth were huge.” Sanchez shows five vividly colored dinos horsing around in the past; on the next spread, the quintet reappear in the same positions—as skeletons in the “museum of truly old things” that the Dinosaur Tooth Fairy now tends to. When a girl loses a tooth in the museum, the fairy follows her home and finds more than she expected. Although YA author Brockenbrough (Devine Intervention) has hold of a fun concept, her narrative bogs down in the fairy’s pursuit of the girl and some past-meets-present jokes (a closet is a “shirt cave”). Meanwhile, the tooth fairy’s nascent friendship with her contemporary counterpart—the whole point of the story—is rushed. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Jill Corcoran, the Herman Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Marietta Zacker, Nancy Gallt Literary Agency. (July)