Doctor De Soto

In a story that is strongly reminiscent of the Aesopic fable concerning the wolf and the crane, murine dentist Dr. De Soto agrees to go against his standing policy, which states that he will not treat dangerous animals (like cats!), and accept a fox as a patient. Correctly interpreting his vulpine patient's desire to eat him, and his assistant (his wife, Mrs. De Soto), the good dentist is torn between his duty as a medical practitioner and his desire to remain in one piece. Fortunately, creative thinking, and a little cunning, allow the mice to outfox the fox, and escape unscathed.

Atypically, Dr. De Soto was chosen as a Newbery Honor Book in 1983 - "atypically" because the Newbery is a writer's award, and is usually given to longer show more works, rather than to picture-books - but although I found the story engaging, and appreciated the interactions of text and image, I can't say that I thought this was a particularly award-worthy title. Still, I did enjoy it, and was charmed by Dr. and Mrs. De Soto, and their sangfroid in the face of danger. Seeing the "little guys" triumph is always fun, especially when the narrative and artwork are so full of humor. show less

I thought this book was incredibly smart and funny. It's about Dr. Desoto, a mouse dentist, and his wife, his assistant. They treat a variety of animals and he's a well known dentist, however, they refuse to treat dangerous animals. One day, a fox comes in with a terrible toothache and they debate about whether or not to treat him. They decide to let him in and they extract his tooth but see that he is tempted to eat them. He needs to come back the next day to get his new tooth and they formulate a plan. After the fox has his work done, they offer him a new treatment that will prevent toothaches forever. He agrees and they paint his teeth with glue so he can't open his mouth for a day or two. They outfox the fox. It's a really cute book show more and the illustrations are great. I love how William Steig uses animals as characters and he is abl eto give them so much personality. show less

Steig explores class distinction through the metaphor of anthropomorphized animals, and specifically through a dentist mouse. Since Dr. De Soto is so small he can easily work on larger animals' teeth, but there are certain perils due to his mousey nature. Dr. De Soto has to ban cats and other natural predators from his practice because the temptation of him working near their teeth is just too much. But when a fox with a toothache begs for help Dr De Soto can't help but take pity on him. Thankfully he has some tricks up his sleeve, so the fox goes home with an empty stomach along with his fixed tooth. Steig's careful plotting and clever dialogue make this book a classic for readers of any age.

A hoot. A bit simple/simplistic, but still some of Steig's vocabulary, and some of his subtle humor and insights. For example, the fox wonders if it would be "shabby" to eat the mice. And the wife is willing to give the fox the benefit of the doubt... Steig always does think of women as the more tender sex.

Dr. De Soto is an animal dentist. Not only does he work on animals, but he is one himself! De Soto is a mouse that works on all manner of animals (that wouldn't eat a mouse) that are also all manner of sizes. He has special chairs for the larger types and a regular chair for those closer to his own size. The doctor's wife assists him with his practice who, very often has to rig up some elaborate pulleys for her husband to reach into his patient's mouths. Dr. De Soto is very popular with his patients because of his delicate touch and almost painless work. One day, a tearful fox showed up outside the office, clearly in immense pain. This caused Dr. De Soto and his wife a crisis of conscience. Do they treat the poor fox and risk being show more dinner? Or do they turn him away to remain miserable? Well, of course De Soto decides to help the poor animal. The doctor discovered a rotten tooth in the fox's mouth that needed extracting and he would need to replace the tooth the next day. The night before they were to see the fox to place the new tooth, the two mice lay awake worrying that as soon as they were done, they would be Fox's lunch. They hatched a plan that would convince the fox that he would be rid of toothaches forever if they could paint a preparation on his teeth after his tooth was replaced. Well, the fox thought that sounded pretty good, indeed. He would get the treatment and then treat himself to a nice lunch. What he didn't realize, however was that this preparation would glue is jaw shut for a day or so. The fox was, indeed, outfoxed! show less

The excellent dentist Dr. De Soto treats all kinds of animals, large and small. He accommodates his patients with chairs and rooms of every size — except for “cats & other dangerous animals,” duly noted on the office’s signs. Dr. De Soto is, after all, a mouse.

But when a fox, weeping with toothache, shows up, Dr. and Mrs. De Soto take pity. Read this award-winning book to see if the mice made the right decision.

I was not the biggest fan of this book for three reasons. The first reason was because I did not find it that enjoyable to read. The plot was uneventful and I was truly unimpressed by the author's writing. Quite frankly I found the writing to be very bland and not punchy at all. In the story, two mice try to fix a fox's teeth and avoid getting eaten in the process. Personally I found this to be boring and overall was disinterested the entire time.
The second reason I disliked this story was because I found it to be outdated. This book was published in 1983 and it shows its age. The pictures are dull and vintage looking. Personally I did not find them that attractive due to their lack of vividness. The pictures also lack detail and show more depth. This led to me to become bored quite quickly because every page looks very similar to one before.
The last reason I did not like this story was because of its predictability. Immediately after the Fox's character was introduced, I predicted that the Fox would try to eat the mice and the mice would retaliate.
I can appreciate the book's theme of not letting someone intimidate you based on their size; however, this does not change the fact that I greatly disliked this book. I can see why it received a Newberry Honor when it was first released because this book's target audience was children born thirty years ago. Since times have changed, I do not find this book to be as enjoyable as a child might have in the past. show less