Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World

Selby B. Beeler

Sep 2001 · Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

About this ebook

From the Tooth Fairy to the Rolling Calf and El Ratón Miguelito—an illustrated look at what kids around the world do when they lose baby teeth.
What do you do when you lose a tooth? Do you put it under your pillow and wait for the tooth fairy? Not if you live in Botswana! In Botswana, children throw their teeth onto the roof. In Afghanistan, they drop their teeth down mouse holes, and in Egypt, they fling their teeth at the sun!
Travel around the world and discover the surprising things children do when they lose a tooth. Selby B. Beeler spent years collecting traditions from every corner of the globe for this whimsical book, and illustrator G. Brian Karas adds to the fun, filling every page with humorous detail. He perfectly captures the excitement and pride that children experience when a tooth falls out.
Praise for Throw Your Tooth on the Roof
"This book will be an eye-opener for young Americans who may have assumed that the Tooth Fairy holds a worldwide visa." — Publishers Weekly
"Karas's illustrations, including his map, are deliberately lighthearted and make people the world over look uniformly friendly. A charming debut." — Kirkus Reviews

About the author

G. Brian Karas lives with his wife and two sons in Rhinebeck, New York. He has illustrated more than thirty books for children, including Truman's Aunt Farm, by Jama Kim Rattigan, and Mr. Carey's Garden, by Jane Cutler. Selby Beeler lives with her husband in Rochester, Minnesota. She first became interested in lost-tooth traditions in other countries when a friend from Brazil asked, "What's a Tooth Fairy?". Curious, Selby has been canvassing strangers ever since. This is her first book.