THE MANGO TOOTH

by Charlotte Pomerantz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 1977

The first tooth was a mango tooth"" because Posy loses it biting into the pit of a mango; the second is a chicken bone tooth; the third (really a grain of rice--Posy's joke on her mother) is a pickle tooth; the real third tooth, on Halloween, succumbs to tootsie pops and Turkish toffee; and the fourth, true to Posy's prediction, is an elephant tooth--it comes out when she bites into the eleventh elephant in a box of animal crackers. (""We each got a box at Jenny's party and I traded with everybody for a whole boxful of just elephants."") Nor each tooth except the false ""pickle tooth"" Posy gets a dime, and she gets two as promised for the elephant tooth; for each, too, there is a little rhyme whose strength and weakness is that it sounds like any family's private joke. Haffner reflects the emotional blend in her unprettified child and mother but idealized domestic life--all smiles, support, plants, baskets, homemade bread, and a typewriter for Mother. Pleasant, soft-focus verity--but it isn't much without the built-in identification.

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Greenwillow/Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1977

Categories: CHILDREN'S