The Alligator's Toothache

by Marguerite Dorian

Only a visit to the dentist could help the alligator, Alli's painful toothache. And so with sinking heart and bus fare provided by the zoo director, Alli boards the bus only to find it going in the wrong direction. He winds up enjoying the hospitality of Little Boy who convinces him that a trip to his father's office is entirely painless. The outlandish idea of a cowardly alligator with a toothache will buttress the courage of his human counterparts on future dental safaris.

Genres: Childrens

Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Marguerite Dorian Taussig, also known as Margareta Dorian, was an illustrator, writer, and poet. Born in Romania to doctor and poet Emil Dorian, Marguerite spent her childhood in Bucharest. After the full establishment in 1948 of the communist regime, Margareta left Romania in August, meeting her father for the last time that September in Vienna. She lived and worked in Paris for several years. In 1952, she emigrated to the United States.

She was educated at the University of Bucharest, at the Sorbonne in Paris, Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, and Brown University in Providence, RI, where she has lived from 1952 up until her passing. She also held a degree in botany. Dorian taught at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Marguerite Dorian's work for both children and adults, as author and illustrator, has appeared in many publications, including the New Yorker and the New York Times. Lothrop, Lee & Shepherd Company published “The Alligators Toothache”, “The King Who Could Not Sneeze”, “The Year of the Waterbearer” and “When the Snow is Blue”- all both written and illustrated by Dorian. More recently her illustrations adorned the pages of The Songs of the Shtetl.

Reviews

[Erin Ure · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very special to me and is quite possibly the root of my love of alligators. As an adult reading it, I do think there could have been a more cohesive message and lesson learned by Alli the Alligator, but that's okay.

[Cheryl Licata · Rating 4 out of 5]

The alligator named Alli wakes up one morning with a terrible toothache. Remedy suggestions by his friends at the zoo don't help, so he takes off on a bus to the city to find a dentist. His adventures eventually have a happy ending -- lucky Alli. When I read this with my first graders in VA alligators were only a picture in a book. Now that they are in my backyard at times, I'm not so sure I would feel the same way about an alligator with a toothache. What's one less tooth in a mouth full of teeth in an alligator who would consider my dog a delicacy?

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book as a little kid - I still have it!