Buddy’s Teeth

Craig Bartlett's Buddy's Teeth is a Dinosaur Train story for 5 year olds about a little T. rex whose tooth pops out in the middle of a game.

What happens

Buddy is supposed to be taking his turn at Dinosaur Hopscotch. Instead he's chewing on his hopscotch stick. He bites down hard and out comes a tooth!

Buddy's a bit different from the rest of his family. He's a T. rex, and his brother and sisters are Pteranodons. So is his mum, and Pteranodons don't have any teeth at all. She doesn't know much about them (fair enough).

His sister Shiny has a theory. He smiles too much and his teeth are tired out! Nobody's convinced.

So it's off on the Dinosaur Train to ask someone who'd actually know. On the way a second tooth comes out, right in front of Mr Conductor. Now Buddy's properly worried. Are ALL his teeth going to fall out?

At Rexville Station they visit Delores Tyrannosaurus and her daughter Annie. Delores has good news. T. rexes lose their teeth all the time and new ones grow in their place. Everyone peers into Buddy's mouth and there they are, new teeth already on the way. He's so pleased he does a little dance.

If your child has a wobbly tooth of their own, this is a gentle way in. Buddy asks the questions a small person really wants answered. Why does it happen? How often? And there's a funny bit about dinosaur breath. Lunch at the Tyrannosaurus nest is carrion (meat, as Tiny whispers to her mum) and Delores's breath smells awful afterwards. Buddy tests his own on his sister, of course.

It's a short read with lots of voices, so it's lovely out loud. Tiny is the one to watch. She's quick and a bit cheeky and gets some of the best lines.

On the walk back to the train Buddy finds an enormous grown-up T. rex tooth with a sharp ridge down the side. Who wouldn't want to imagine their own teeth that big one day?

What to read next

If the Pteranodon family goes down well, there are three more Dinosaur Train stories in the library. Buddy meets a Triceratops who can't stand fish, the family goes to a hooting dinosaur concert, and Buddy and Tiny fall out over a Stegosaurus's spikes.