Bottom Line: A gentle book with an adorable hero that teaches children the steps and importance of brushing teeth—even if it feels a little scary at first. Also available for Android.
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Luca Lashes Learns to Brush His Teeth is a new ebook in a series of apps and enhanced digital books by developer Luca Lashes, LLC in conjunction with FlyingWord. The entire series is meant to help young children learn about various experiences that often feel scary, and each book includes a parent section at the end. There are currently four books with additional stories and experiences in development.
This particular Luca book teaches the importance of brushing teeth, which is not a new concept in children's literature or the app store. Authors Nicole and Damir Fonovich go a step further, however, by also discussing elements that might make tooth brushing scary or uncomfortable for children. Here for instance, the main character, a young boy named Luca, is scared of the sharp bristles on his toothbrush.
Luca has a method to deal with all the new situations he encounters in his books. He flutters his eyelashes, silently blinks twice, and then magically becomes brave. With this newfound bravery, the book continues describing the process of brushing, no longer a source of fear for Luca.
The book is written with a rhyming couplet on each page. The words are highlighted as it is read aloud, but individual words can't be highlighted. The pace of the text was slightly fast, and some of the couplets seemed forced, even on the first page: "As Luca grew older, his teeth started growing. They started getting white, almost like glowing." Others didn't make sense—on the page where Luca brushes his tongue (good to include), Luca is said to brush it hard so "…that his whole mouth is clean, sparkling white and pure." Thankfully, his tongue does stay pink in the picture!
Though the pace is fast, there is a pause button on the top of the page. I found the book best when paused on each page right at the end of the couplet. This way I could interact with the page and discuss the text before moving on. However, this did take some skill to pause right before it advanced—the pages flip quickly at the end of each rhyme.
The Menu button allows the user to change the text size and language, as well as to access information about the author, illustrator, and other apps. This section does link to email, but there are no social media connections.
The interactions and animations on each page are understated. On one page, the sun and moon shimmer, birds tweet and spin, hands move around a clock, and some exhaust comes out of Luca's pajama-shirt rocket. The illustrations are nice—I was especially impressed with the facial expressions drawn. Luca looks genuinely perplexed, concerned, scared, worried, hopeful, determined, and brave. As he successfully brushes his teeth, he even looks satisfied and proud. Luca rather than the text or animations is the real star of this book.
While this book attempts to shed light on teeth brushing so as to demystify it, I would like to see the narrative be a bit more open-ended. Luca is afraid of just one thing (sharp bristles), while children may be afraid of many parts of the process. The concept of a "magic" routine might help some children to take on a new situation with bravery, but it isn't totally genuine to the full process of working through fears. It would be nice though if there was a quick magic fix. Most of the time, however, bravery means trying even when something stays scary. Kids often need multiple exposures to not feel afraid, especially kids with special needs like an autism spectrum disorder.
I was also disappointed by the parent tips at the end of the app. The preface claims that the parent's section will "highlight the key teaching concepts and offer questions parents can use to prompt learning opportunities." Instead, this book offers suggestions for healthy dental hygiene. They are good suggestions (brush twice a day, brush each section of the mouth), but nothing relating to the purpose of the book—removing fear from tooth brushing. There are coloring sheets for Luca Lashes books, which is a nice tie-in.
The app also needs a menu to allow navigation to a particular page. This allows for better discussion about reading/listening comprehension, and allows parents to move to a relevant page quickly when working on brushing teeth at home.
Parents, teachers, and therapists who work with children that resist teeth brushing may find this book an excellent addition to open the conversation about each child's fears. The illustrations and theme make it worth a download. There is room for more refinement, but the idea of dealing directly with topics that are often difficult for children is a great one. Overall, I admire the concept and design of this series and find it is a welcome addition for parents with reluctant children. Kids will have the opportunity to in essence grow up with Luca Lashes in much the way my generation grew up with Charlie Brown and all his doubts and neuroses.
Heather Hetler wishes magical lashes could get her children to remember to brush their teeth without being asked. She is also a speech-language pathologist in an elementary school. smartappsforkids.com was paid a priority-review fee to complete this review in an expedited manner.