You Can't Join If You Have All Your Teeth (4th Annual R.T.O.B. Write Off)

I recently took one of my kids to the dentist and in the waiting room there were a few children’s books. Since we had plenty of time to kill I thought that I might read one or two to my son. Knowing that I had promised to participate in msmorvay’s Resurrecting the Oldies Book Write Off http://www.epinions.com/content_4867465348. I made sure that I grabbed one that was a few years old. Inevitably the book I chose to read reminded me of my daughter because the little girl in the story has long curly hair like she does. The name of the book is: The Lost Tooth Club.

The Lost Tooth Club by Arden Johnson is a children’s book about a little girl named Olivia who wants to join a club called: The Lost Tooth Club. This book is written for children of tooth losing age of course, and would be good for children between the ages of 4 and 7.

A few other children in the neighborhood had formed a Lost Tooth Club. The kids held meetings, drew pictures of how they lost their teeth, and even had soft food parties. Olivia wanted in bad, but unfortunately she didn’t meet the only requirement of the club. In order to be in the club you had to have a lost tooth. Olivia had a loose tooth, but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn’t get it to come out. She wants to be in the lost tooth club so badly that she dreams about a bunch of animals all missing a tooth being able to join the club where she could not.

She just couldn’t take it any longer so she devised a plan to try and trick the other club members in to believing that she had lost her tooth. She does a couple of things to try and black the tooth out so that it looks like it is missing. And with her loving dog by her side all along trots over to the club house to claim she has lost her tooth. Each time she goes to the house to join the club something happens to reveal that she has not really lost the tooth.

Does Olivia ever loose the tooth and get in to the club? Well if you really want to know you will have to read: The Lost Tooth Club, by Arden Johnson.

This is a very cute story about a little girl who wants to belong. It is kind of sad that she will stoop to any level to try and get what she wants though. I don’t know if the message of trying to fool other people to get what you want is such a good thing. I did like that the other kids were not mean to Olivia, especially when she really tried to trick them. They of course thought that she was funny, but did not really make fun of her.

The illustrations are really well done, and there is some really good detail about them, especially in the background of the characters. I liked that everywhere Olivia went her dog was with her to.

Over all I think the book was really well done. I don’t think it has any clear moral, but it is a story that I think most kids in the age group where losing teeth is a very big reality this story gives them something to relate to. Some kids go through times where they have a loose tooth and it just won’t come out. Others may find it thrilling to find that losing teeth is celebrated by a club.

I also liked that the kids each drew a picture of how they lost their tooth to put in a lost tooth album. I think that is a great idea for a parent to encourage their own child to do. They can have a picture drawn by themselves showing how they lost each tooth. That would be a great keepsake to keep them all in a little scrap book type thing.

The book is in paperback form. It is skinny and wide, there is aprox. 34 pages, and nearly every page is illustrated.

Over all this is nice book, I didn’t like the whole lying, hiding, aspect of it, but other than that the story was nice, and entertaining. The book is a quick and easy read for a parent to read to a child. It is slightly above beginner reader reading level. Perfect for a 7 year old to read, or a strong reading 6 year old, probably slightly advanced for a kindergartner or pre-school aged child to read on their own.

My child is 8 years old, and has lost and gotten back most of his teeth already, but he did think the story was pretty funny and did laugh at a few of the pictures, especially the ones showing the drawings of the club members showing how they lost their teeth. These drawings inside of the page drawings were drawn as a kid of that age group would draw them.

Arden Johnson invites kids to send him their lost tooth stories in picture form. He has a web site where he will feature a lost tooth story that is sent to him.

Thank you to msmorvay for sponsoring the Resurrecting the Oldies Book Write Off. This write off is on its 4th season and I am happy to say that I have participated all 4 years. For more information you can follow the link above, or you can go to her profile page, where you will find all the entries for the last 4 years. http://www.epinions.com/user-msmorvay




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