Keine Zahnfee?

Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World by Selby B. Beeler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A charming book of disgusting milk tooth traditions from around the world.  Reminds me of Pratchett's book Hogfather in that many of these teeth are being taken away or protected.  There must be some powerful universal hoodoo associated with this. 

Mice seem to be in charge of collection in many places, which makes sense as they are rodents and have the continuously growing teeth.  I'm not sure what throwing the tooth on the roof represents, but it seems to be popular.  And, I don't know Danish, but I suspect that the tooth fairy "named Tand Feen" is actually named "Tooth Fairy." [Just checked that with Google Translate and I'm right.]  Germany needs to get on the stick.  Apparently, they don't do anything special with baby teeth which just seals their fate for me as the Most Boring People in the World.  [Before anyone complains, I should point out that both sides of my family are German and no noticeable personality developed until they emigrated.]  If anyone knows of any interesting tooth traditions from Germany, please let me know.


For additional reading, I suggest I lost my tooth in Africa by Penda Diakité which is a really cute story with great illustrations.



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