In collaboration with Tulika Books, we present book reviews every month of new age stories and age old fables, to preserve and promote the habit of reading amongst all children.
All of us have a sweet memory attached to the loss of our first milk tooth. Having read tales about keeping our fallen tooth under the pillow and having it replaced with a small fortune by Fairy Godmother, we eagerly waited for our first milk tooth to fall.
In Lila’s Loose Tooth, written by Delhi-based author Mamta Nainy, children are introduced to the universal eagerness of awaiting the fall of their first milk tooth with an endearing tale of Lila’s lost & found tooth.
Many of Lila’s classmates are losing their milk teeth, and they all have vivid and different stories about what they do with their first ever fallen tooth. We see a class full of children smiling widely—smiles of fallen teeth—and a sulking Lila, engagingly depicted with illustrations by Habib Ali.
Lila had heard everyone’s story. Rima buried her tooth for the mouse to take, Raja kept his tooth under the pillow for the fairy to replace with a coin, and Ramona threw her tooth onto her roof for the sparrow to get her a new one. All Lila wanted was to have a fun story of her own.
She waited eagerly to see any signs of a wiggling tooth, asking her mother ‘When will my tooth start shaking, Amma?’ Until one fine morning when she ran to her mother in excitement to show her, her wobbling tooth.
Finally having a wobbly tooth, Lila couldn’t wait for it to fall. She teased the tooth with her tongue non-stop to have it fall soon. After all, she wanted to narrate her fun story to her friends soon. One day, Lila’s tooth wobbles a lot, she can’t wait to run home and show her mother the very shaky tooth. She reaches home to find her mother feeding her baby brother, Kanan. She says, ‘Look Amma, it’s shaking more and more.’ However, before she could show her wobbly tooth to her mother, Lila sneezes loudly ACHOOO! And pop! Falls Lila’s tooth on the ground.
Lila frantically looks for her fallen tooth everywhere—over the table, under the bed—but it’s nowhere to be found. An upset Lila begins to cry, but her mother says, ‘Oh! I know where your tooth is,’ pointing at Kanan’s tiny mouth, where a little tooth has begun growing.
Published by Tulika Books, Lila’s Loose Tooth is an endearing tale of the universal feeling of waiting for one’s tooth to fall and the sweet journey of having it fall, finally. For its young readers, Lila’s Loose Tooth is the perfect introduction to the joy ride of having one’s tooth fallen and its subsequent fun rituals.
