Doctor De Soto by William Steig

First published: 1982; illustrated

Subjects: Animals, health and illness, and jobs and work

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Fantasy

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Principal Characters:

  • Dr. De Soto, a mouse dentist who treats all animals, except the dangerous
  • Mrs. De Soto, his wife and assistant
  • The fox, who is rescued from his pain by the De Sotos

Form and Content

Doctor De Soto tells the story of a mouse dentist who takes pity on a fox with a toothache. Told in third-person narration, the lively story presents several moral dilemmas. It is Dr. De Soto’s established rule, posted by sign, that he does not treat animals that are potentially dangerous to him. Out of compassion for a fox who is in great pain, however, he sets aside this rule and provides treatment. Under anesthesia, the fox reveals his fondness for mice as food, and the dentist must decide whether to continue treatment the following day. The fox, on the other hand, wonders only briefly if it would be “shabby” to devour his benefactors; by the next day, he has overcome his thin moral resolve with plans to eat Dr. and Mrs. De Soto as soon as his new tooth is in place.

The compassion of the mice is matched by their courage and cleverness. After a night of debating whether to continue treating the fox, Dr. De Soto decides to follow his father’s principle of always finishing what he starts. When the fox arrives the next morning, the De Sotos have a plan in place. After the new tooth is installed, the dentist offers to coat the fox’s teeth with a substance that will prevent any further tooth decay, and the fox eagerly consents. After all, if he eats the dentist, he will have eliminated the very person who might treat him for future dental distress. The mixture seals the fox’s teeth together temporarily, and the outwitted fox must leave without devouring the De Sotos.

This bright, lively story is easy to read and provides a satisfactory conclusion. The De Sotos struggle with their natural tendency to protect themselves against a predator in order to perform an act of compassion for the agonized fox. While the fox is unable to overcome his natural tendency to the consume mice as an act of appreciation for their kindness, he still receives the treatment that he needs and wanders out of the story somewhat stunned but out of pain.

William Steig uses an economy of line to create the settings for the narrative and to convey the emotions and intentions of his characters. The illustrations on each page provide the reader with interesting and humorous details and help make the story entirely believable, within the boundaries of the fantasy created. While mice are not dentists with large animals for patients, Steig shows how this would be possible if they were. Dr. De Soto uses a miniature form of standard dental equipment but reaches his patients by ladder and works directly inside their mouths, using boots to keep his feet dry. Indeed, the kindly dentist is quite popular with larger animals because of his delicate touch and dainty drills. For work that calls for additional strength, such as pulling teeth, Dr. De Soto is assisted by his wife, who skillfully operates a system of ropes, cranks, and pulleys.

Critical Context

As a young man, William Steig proclaimed his ambition to be a writer, but he turned his talents to cartooning as a way to make a living. At the suggestion of Robert Kraus, a children’s writer and colleague at The New Yorker, Steig began writing books for children. Doctor De Soto was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1982, the second of his books to receive that honor. Steig’s The Amazing Bone (1976) was named a Caldecott Honor Book and Abel’s Island was named a Newbery Honor Book. Before that, he won the Caldecott Medal in 1969 for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, a fantasy featuring a stone that grants wishes.

Seemingly defenseless animals who survive by their own wits or magic are featured in other books by Steig. He created Amanda the pig, who uses a talking bone to escape capture in The Amazing Bone, and Solomon the rabbit, who turns himself into a nail in order to avoid a cat in Solomon the Rusty Nail (1985). In folktale fashion, Steig’s protagonists are transformed in some way for the better by their experiences, developing patience, insight, courage, or a sense of humor out of the ordeals that they face.

Doctor De Soto Goes to Africa, the sequel to Doctor De Soto, features Mrs. De Soto in a more prominent role and provides her name (Deborah) for the first time. Both books portray the De Sotos in the classic tradition of husband-and-wife teams: warm and loving, quick-thinking and courageous. They encounter serious problems but retain their sense of adventure with unfailing humor.