Young Marissa wakes one morning with a toothache – too much candy
does have painful consequences! So it’s off to the dentist instead of
school. She experiences the morning hustle bustle of a busy city,
careful to hold her mother’s hand tightly.
The most “unusual” sight she
sees is a seated man: “In front of him was an open shoe box with money
inside.”
In the dentist’s waiting room, she again notices the man sitting
still on the busy street below. “Most people walked by the man. Some
people, just a few, dropped coins into his shoe box. One man in a hurry
actually stepped over the man.”
Marissa loses her rotten tooth in the dentist’s chair, and gets it
back in an orange envelope, with a reminder to put it under her pillow
that night. “‘Is there really a tooth fairy?’” she asks her mother …
So far, this is a sweet, predictable story, right?
Here comes the kicker. Back on the street, Marissa pulls away from
her mother, and drops her tooth into the homeless man’s shoe box. “‘Put
it under your pillow tonight … and there will be money there tomorrow,’”
she explains to him.
And the book’s final line: “Now all he needed …
was a pillow.”
I don’t know if the youngest will ‘get it,’ but parents certainly
will … what a slice of wrenching reality!
For parents hoping to shield young kids from ‘reality’ as long as
possible, this title is a sobering, beautifully presented reminder of
our children’s wisdom, their trusting humanity, and how they navigate
the un - understandable parts of their daily lives. Read this book
together: that one little tooth certainly has much to teach us all.
Here is the story beautifully read by Annette Bening. Enjoy!!
