THE LOST-AND-FOUND TOOTH

Second-grader Lucy is anxious to join the ranks of her classmates who have started losing their baby teeth. Mr. Reilly, Lucy’s teacher at West Street Elementary, adds to her anticipation by installing a “Who’s Lost a Tooth?” calendar in the classroom, on which each child records the date, time and place of every lost tooth. Everyone but Lucy had already lost a tooth. As the months pass, Lucy watches classmates add to the growing calendar of lost teeth. In February Lucy’s thrilled to finally find a wiggly bottom tooth. As luck would have it, Lucy’s loose tooth falls out when she’s playing tag during recess and she can’t find it. After all that waiting, Lucy has really lost her first tooth. Soon she and her classmates are on their hands and knees searching for that important first tooth. The straightforward text in one of Borden’s characteristic cycles of linked free-verse poems combines with Gustavson’s realistic watercolor illustrations to tell the story; it and its and simple theme prove completely captivating and satisfying. Ideal for tooth-fairy aficionados. (Picture book. 7-10)