about the book
Alan the alligator loves his big, scary teeth. At night, he polishes them to perfection so that the next day he can sneak up on the animals in the jungle and scare them out of their wits. The parrots, frogs, and monkeys are afraid of Alan. He loves it.
But Alan has a secret the he hides from the other animals. His sharp, pointy teeth are false. Each night after he polishes them, he puts them away in a special hiding place.
Barry the Beaver discovers his deception and hides the teeth from Alan. The next morning, toothless Alan doesn’t know what happened to his teeth, but he tries to scare the jungle animals anyway. The animals howl with laughter—and Alan learns what it is like to be bullied.
Alan becomes so sad, he cries all night long. The other animals take pity on Alan and offer back his teeth—along with a few rules for proper jungle behavior.
about the author
Something terrible happened to Jarvis few days before handing over his third children’s book, Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth, to his publisher. His studio was robbed. He lost his computer, scanner, lightbox, and hard drive back-up. The worst part is that he didn’t have his book or illustrations backed up online. He lost everything for the book and had to start over. “The irony is that the plot of the book is about stealing!” he says. If there is a silver lining to the story, it’s that Jarvis believes the illustrations turned out better than the originals.
Jarvis attended art school in the hopes of designing album covers for famous bands, but his real dream was that one of them would ask him to play guitar for them. He realized the first part of the dream but is still waiting for Coldplay to call him. In the meantime, he plans to continue writing and illustrating books.
Jarvis’ first name is Peter. He decided to use the name Jarvis because he thought books “by Jarvis” sounded much better than “by Peter”. In addition to designing album covers, Jarvis also has worked as a bingo-caller, bouncy castle painter, and an animation studio director. He lives in the UK and has a girlfriend, Jenna.
Sources:
Author website
Author spotlight: Bright Literary Agency
Author interview: The Society of Artists Agents
Book Trailer: Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth
Also by Jarvis:
Fred Forgets. Harper Collins. 2016.
read more!
Ballet Cat : The Totally Secret Secret by Rob Shea
Ballet Cat loves playing with her best friend, Sparkles the Pony. What do they play? Ballet, of course! Ballet Cat asks Sparkles to pick what they will play today. He suggests a number of ideas, which are all vetoed by Ballet Cat. Sparkles’ is sad. His secret secret is that he doesn’t like to play ballet dancing every single day! Ballet Cat has her own secret secret. Do you know what it is?
Fred Forgets by Jarvis
Fred the Elephant forgot what he was supposed to do today. His friend Monkey decides to get a laugh by tricking Elephant into believing he was supposed to do some silly antics like ride a unicycle upside down and peel a million bananas. When Elephant remembers what he wanted to do, he realizes Monkey is being mean and gets the last laugh.
Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book) by Julie Falatko
Snappsy the Alligator is out minding his own business when he’s thrust into a book by a narrator who tracks his every move. When the narrator accuses Snappsy of prowling the forest in search of defenseless bunnies and birds to eat, Snappsy lets the narrator know he’s only going to the grocery store. The narrator gets a lot of other things wrong too. Who is this narrator anyway?