The trials and tribulations of Bernice Sherwin-Hendricks, a.k.a. Beany (to her friends), Beanhead (to her big brother Phillip), and Bernice Lorraine Sherwin-Hendricks (to her mother, when her mother's mad). Beany knows how many freckles she has (23), doesn't really like the boy she sits next to on the bus (she just likes his birthmark, which resembles a dog's head), and has a new obsession every day (one day, Glamour Nails; next day, Mood Rings). When she loses her tooth before she can collect on it, she conscientiously writes the tooth fairy a thank-you note, a note explaining how the tooth was lost, a diagram illustrating the second note, and one highly emotional poem: Beany gets paid, of course. An amusing and enjoyable story told with great authenticity by Wojciechowski (The Best Halloween of All, 1992, etc.). (Fiction. 5- 9)
