Review and Giveaway: 'My Loose Tooth' by Stephen Krensky

My Loose Tooth
By Stephen Krensky
ISBN-10: 0679888470
ISBN-13: 978-0679888475
Paperback, 32 pages
Random House Books for Young Readers
January 19, 1999
Reviewed by Sabrina Williams

My Loose Tooth is an adorable early reader book about a little boy with a loose tooth that just refuses to fall out. It reminds me a lot of a book we read a while back, Arthur's Tooth, which basically has the same plot, but features every one's favorite aardvark (except Arthur's friends make fun of him and this boy's friends, thankfully, do not). The nameless boy in My Loose Tooth tries everything within his power to make the tooth fall out, and wonders how wild animals handle losing teeth.

The story is told in rhyme, with simple, yet bright and colorful illustrations. It's perfect for children just beginning to read. There is one problem. Many of the words in the story are far above the "Step 1" label assigned to the book, which is geared toward preschoolers and first graders. While I was browsing the library today, I noticed that there is a huge discrepancy in the early reader books. One publisher might label a book as a Step 1, while another labels a book with similar content and difficulty as a Step 2.

However, it seems the publisher agree with me about the level of My Loose Tooth. Many of my books are thrift store finds, thus commonly end up being older editions. This is the case with this title. I noticed that while my copy of the book was labeled Step 1, an online search was pulling up covers with a Step 2 label. A little digging in my personal library turned up a second copy of the book (I know, I've got too many. I forget which ones we already have when I'm shopping). This one is a newer edition, and has the Step 2 label. So the publisher must have recognized the error and designated future prints with the more advanced level.

*Edited to add: I just discovered that what the publisher actually changed was the grade range. Now Step 2 books are aimed at preschoolers and first graders while Step 1 books are preschool to kindergarten.

My son does not usually like to revisit these early reader books because I make them assigned reading, so you guessed it: GIVEAWAY!

As noted before, I have two copies of this book to pass on. One says Step 1, one says Step 2, but the content is the same. You be the judge of the difficulty level.

Leave me a comment by Sunday, August 24th, 2008. I'll choose two winners the following Monday. Open to US residents.

Good luck!

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