Demon Dentist audiobook

After recently reading Gangsta Granny I was quite eager to read more by David Walliams. He's funny, his books have great illustrations and children absolutely LOVE them. After reading my second book, Demon Dentist, I'm not a die-hard fan but I do want to read the rest of his back catalogue - always a good sign!Demon Dentist, for me, is even better than Gangsta Granny. It's deceptively dark, gruesome and truly frightening when you deconstruct it. It's about a demon masquerading as a crazy dentist hellbent on ripping every child's entire mouthful of teeth out, leaving disgusting, vile 'gifts' under their pillow as a treat (like badger's paws and bat's wings, for example). I'm not sure how a younger reader would take this book, so it might be best to say it's for older children, maybe 10+. The illustrations are fantastically sinister, with Tony Ross perfectly capturing the grotesque Demon Dentist and her creepy cat, Fang. As seems to be the case with David Walliams books, or at least the two I've read, they end on quite a sad note, which I find unusual for children's books. I don't know whether he's trying to teach kids a lesson about loss and grief, or prepare them for the inevitable, but it seems out of place, especially in Demon Dentist. I felt so sorry for Alfie, and I'm sure children reading it will, in some cases, be distraught!This is a perfect book for me, thanks to its humour, horror theme and accompanying pictures. I like my children's books to be dark and disgusting wherever possible and, thanks to my lifelong phobia of the dentist, it seems Demon Dentist was written especially for me. I'm so glad I'm above the age when teeth are wobbly and fall out, because I would not like to go to bed thinking I'll wake up to find a horde of centipedes under my pillow. I hope kids don't lose much sleep after finishing this book!

Loving the book for the moment, don't nw what to expect, but hopfuly that I will enjoy it.

At the age of ten I think this book is fabulous but sad and funny at the same time. It made me cry at end but I certainly recommend it. I give it nine out of ten.

I really liked this book, David Walliams is probably one of my all time favorite authors. I love David Walliams's sense of humour, with all of the made up words. It really makes the book entertaining. Overall, a very fun read, and a nice break from Alex Rider. Going to read the next Alex Rider now!

** spoiler alert ** This book is amazing,I love how it builds up the story line slowly and all the characters are well thought out. This book shows the. Character change of Alfie as he becomes brave and saves his dad.I think that this book has taken an incredible fear of young children and turned it into a horror story, but all ends well as the queen of teeth is defeated.

This is another fantastic book from David Walliams but most definitely one of his darker works.As mentioned in several other reviews sensitive and younger children will likely find the dentist absolutely terrifying.I actually soldiered on through the chapter when Alfie is trapped, restrained and tortured by the dentist inwardly preying and expecting for the funny stuff to happen to balance things but it just didn't, she rips all of his teeth out with horrifically described torture instruments and he escapes with no teeth at all.It IS a funny story (in places) with some great characters as usual, Raj the newsagent is a big favourite of ours but I would definitely NOT recommend this for kids under 10, and especially not for any kids who have the slights fear of dentists!!

A Book ReviewA couple of weeks ago, I read the book, Demon Dentist, in English. It's a kid book, but I enjoyed it very much. Even though we are mature, some of growing ups don't like dentists. I do understand the protagonist feelings very much. First of all, I thought the book has simple content, but this book is very well written. This book reminded me of my favorite author, Roald Dahl. I want to read his books more.

Twelve-year-old Alfie hates going to the dentist. His teeth are yellow and brown and he loves sweets. He had an awful experience at the one-and-only dentist in town, Mr. Erstwhile, and has refused to go since then. Erstwhile croaks and a new dentist, Miss Root, shows up at Alfie's school to promote good dental hygiene. Or so it appears. But something is off... she's an odd tooth, saying that she will not give gory details on Erstwhile's death, but then gives the gory details: Erstwhile was found in his surgery room lying in a pool of blood with a dental probe through his heart. Irony abounds as Miss Root sniffs out Alfie's rotten mouth-full of teeth in the school auditorium like a bloodhound. He gets pegged for an appointment at her office that he is determined to miss. Alfie describes the creepy dentist as, "The pupils in her eyes shone black. On second look, they were blacker than coal. Blacker than oil. Blacker than night. Blacker than the blackest black. In short, they were black." Like a stand-up comedian, the author has great timing that includes some hits and misses. This book needs a "snort-laugh ALERT." If you like silly books with exaggerated characters, then you'll like this comedy.Alfie teams up with Gabz when he sees Miss Root acting suspicious. She is younger than him and he calls her his "girl friend" which all they adults interpret as his girlfriend. The two sputter in anger every time this happens and I laughed every time as it got more preposterous. Take Raj, the endearing dork of a newsagent, who says to Alfie: "'Your girlfriend?! Ooh...' cooed Raj. 'No, no!' exclaimed Alfie. 'She isn't my girlfriend. Gabz is just a friend who's a girl.' 'Your friendgirl*?'" The author puts an asterisk with a footnote: "*Made-up word ALERT (any letters of complaint to be addressed to Raj.) Move over spoiler alerts. David Walliams pokes fun at evolving social cultures such as the boy who misses out on all the action at school because he texts 24/7. Or the drama teacher that thinks the social worker, Winnie, driving a moped throughout the school is part of an improv act. Or Winnie, the social worker, that eats and drinks like a piston with no sensitivity or respect to others. Then there is some toilet bowl humor with farting (that is in the top five next to "poop" and "butt" for kids at my school) along with some terrific scary parts, the need for false teeth, and "witchestry*". A snortingly* fun at the beach book. Okay. I would not make team Walliams made-up word list.When kids at school start receiving gross items like bat wings, an old man's toenail, and an eyeball under their pillows from the tooth fairy, Alfie is sure it is connected with Miss Root. He teams up with Alfie, Raj, and Gabz to solve the mystery. The straightforward plot is easy to follow and Miss Root is a one dimensional villain. I did think Walliams walked a fine line with Winnie or maybe it is the illustrator. Come to think of it, Walliams implies she is black but never says so. Anyway, she's black and dresses in a kaleidoscope of outrageously bright clothes with bangles on her hands and a big bum. This stereotype is somewhat redeemed by Winnie's generous actions at the end, but I was uncomfortable with his descriptions and when she loses her clothes on the fence, I thought it was weird. That seemed unnecessary and a miss on the target audience. Walliams is consistent, however, creating adult characters that are extreme and exaggerated from the police officer to the head principal.The witch is stereotyped and one dimensional. You've seen her before in many stories. I am reading Jack Zipes, "The Irresistible Fairy Tale," and it is a fascinating look at the evolution of storytelling and fairy tales. Zipes traces fairy tales from pagan societies to Roman Catholicism that "demonized pagan tales, rituals, and customs." Stories that used to have fairies and witches had good and bad ones until the church labeled it witchcraft and they became demonized. His book is very dense and I won't go into it but he shows how the witch in modern Europe and contemporary Western culture evolved into the one-dimensional demonized villain, like the one in this story, to support patriarchal traditions. This book's fairy tale ending follows the happily-ever-after trope and while it follows many traditional conventions, it does depart from some traditions when Gabz rescues Alfie after he fails to rescue her. As Zipes explains, fairy tales are not original but based on "human communication of shared experience" and evolve as societies remember and retell them year-after-year. I wonder what the fairy tale will look like hundreds of years from now and what stereotypes and conventions will have changed.Demon dentist for me is a combination of slapstick, traditional European fairy tale, and "Struwwelpeter." The latter is a collection of moral stories published in 1845, that show the consequences of bad behaviors or manners often in a violent way. One boy sucks his thumbs and a tailor comes and cuts them off with his scissors. The illustration shows blood dripping from the boy's missing thumbs. Harriet plays with matches and burns herself up. She is a pile of ashes in the illustration with only her red shoes left. But while "Struwwelpeter" is serious in tone (although the cats crying in their hankies suggests otherwise), Walliam's book is not. Oh no. Stamp it with, "Guaranteed to snort laugh." Alfie might lose his teeth because he can't brush, but he gets the last laugh. David Walliams creates exaggerated, preposterous characters that are mostly adults and has great comedic timing with jokes. If you like silly books with a simple plot, then give this one a go.

I recently did my placement in a year four class and nearly every child was reading, or had read, a David Walliams book. Not wanting to be left behind I bought Demon Dentist and Gangsta Granny… When picking this book up, I didn’t expect to go on an emotional journey. I thought I was going to spend the entire book laughing, not crying!When I think of David Walliams, I think of his comedy. So, when I picked up his book, I assumed that it would be hilarious. But you know what they say about assuming… What I hadn’t been told by anyone are the heart wrenching characters Walliams creates. Within this book, the main protagonist is a little boy called Alfie. His mother died giving birth to him. His dad is in a wheel chair because he was a coal miner, and the years of going into the pits have taken the toll on his lungs, and his health has been getting progressively worse. Alfie wears scraggy school clothes and gets bullied. On top of this, Alfie hasn’t been to the dentist in six years and has very rotten teeth.Despite the sadness of Alfie’s position, the plot itself is very funny and enjoyable, sending Alfie on adventures to find the truth about the new dentist in town. The plot is not at all realistic, but this is what makes it so fun and unpredictable. I found myself audibly laughing out loud on more than one occasion.The books look scary because they are big, but are relatively easy to read. I would definitely recommend this to older children, and adults, to read. Although, I would warn people to check the content before giving it to certain children as it could be quite upsetting for some children (children in similar situations, or who get scared easily).For this review, and others like it, see: https://tumblingintowonderlandbooks.w...

I saw one friend's (who's a dentist) concern that such book might frighten kids even more when it comes to a question of dentist visit. And children are already scared of dentists (I was and still am to this day!). So how come such book was even published?Nevertheless, I enjoyed it immensely. If I had a child, I would reconsider if I really wanted to give such a book for a kid. But I definetely recommend it to grown-ups who enjoy children's books.The dentist is a really scary witch. Quite a perfect halloweenish witch. And she has a cat named Fang. I just love such evil characters!But the main book emphasis goes around a very poor boy and his very unfortunate life. I see how this part is set to teach kids sympathy and tenderness, not to bully the ones that don't or can't fit in, be compassionate and understanding. And I see that there is a need to make it interesting and that's where you need some evil witch, because how otherwise will you keep the children's attention?I listened to the audio book and the reading was so good, especially the twist on accents and language nuances. I have to give 5 stars even if that means more children with rotten teeth!

Fun but wow will not help anyone be more comfortable with dentists!

My boys liked it very much. Humor and action.

First David Walliams book I've read. Loved its dark humour. Quite Roald Dahl-like at times. Great for any age.