It sat there upon the New Arrivals shelf in the library, not quite fitting between different sized books, slightly askew in its place and almost nudging itself to me. Lila’s Loose Tooth it read , by Mamata Nainy and Habib Ali. All new !
I was on the calendar to facilitate story time for our preschool group who visit the library every Saturday morning where the children have extremely high standards of what is worthwhile and what is worth reading. So the pressure to be responsible for Saturday morning programs is high and I felt Lila was beckoning. I took the book home and read it once. It endeared immediately. I read it twice, thrice and then it was THE one.
Often we are asked, how does one choose a good book ? Are there such ideas as good books ? How does one select and such and the simplest answer is READ. Read with a view on the story, the craft, the alchemy that the writer – illustrator is attempting and read to look for spaces to bring in the audience – specially if you are planning to facilitate a shared story experience.
Lila’s Loose Tooth immediately met all these expectations, but I think the selection was clinched when I got to the end. To have a writer who values the intelligence of her reader and recognises that the reader will get the ending made this text my Saturday morning touchstone. This was enriched by the inclusion of stories within stories about ‘baby teeth’ that allowed us to include so many different cultural practices. To have an illustrator who introduces a character not written into the story but one that adds to the story was perfect. I have wandering eyes and minds in my preschool group and so in our time with Lila and her loose tooth, we embraced the cat and his emotions and Lila’s home became ours as we immersed ourselves in the story.
For anyone who wants to use this fine text with a group of children, here is the broad outline of my plan.
Treasure Hunt of letters , that came from the title of the book. All the many letter /L/’s and /O/’s allowed my preschoolers a fun entry into print. We found these letters and we identified them in other books. We played with them on slate with chalk and turned them into shapes and what not. We drew objects we knew beginning with these letters including fun ones like ‘oom’ and ‘oos’ that defied meaning momentarily and we shaped our bodies into the letters from the title.
We then put our letters together to make the title and found the book. Lila’s Loose Tooth – sat awaiting us, just as it did when I was looking. The children felt they had found this text and I was simply the mediator and that is how it should be.
We made a circle for our regular circle time and spoke about body parts and what parts are loose. This was great fun. We yanked our fingers and twisted our ankles and pulled on our toes , but nothing was loose. Then one bright spark shouts, hair and many little hands reached for mine ! Much was loose. Another bright one shouted, “ todays story is about body parts “ and before he could finish, someone said, “loose tooth” and in a way that only young children can do, a chant rang through the room “ loose tooth – loose tooth – loose tooth”. There was a hum and a readiness for the story. So we settled down to read.
They loved the opening image. We paused to see what is happening. Lila was identified immediately and the gaps in other mouths allowed us to discover the plot immediately. We heard personal stories of loose teeth. We examined each other’s mouths and listened to what happened to the teeth. We had fairies and money in plenty , we also had the practice of throwing the tooth on the roof which is common in our part of the country and we had one story of the tooth being a bad one and so going into the dustbin !
That silenced my group enough for me to turn the page and share what is happening with Lila. We got swept into her world easily because the illustrations and text are pitched to a perfect rhythm. When we encounter Rima, Raja and Ramona, one of my little ones say, “all names are with /R/ “and for a brief spell we travelled down another path. I managed to bring them back to Amma and Kanan. When Lila looses her tooth, we sent our group on a search and find in the room where lo and behold they found large gooey marshmallow teeth hidden for them as a mid story surprise. And finally when we hear what Amma says at the end, the youngest in my group , a three year old says “ Amma is funny !”. They had knowledge and they had the story and on a Saturday morning we sat between the two, enjoying both.
We discussed milk/ baby teeth and how they are place holders for larger, stronger teeth that appear and whose father had a gold tooth and whose mother had a ‘fake’ tooth and such and returned again and again to Lila’s experience.
We made some craft portraits of Lila shaking her teeth any which way that brought us joy and just when I would have thought we got so much from the story, one of the children said, “now when Kanan grows up and his tooth falls out, what will Amma say?”
Wonder is all we have when we surrender to a story world and wonder is what makes us human. The library enables this wonder. Try it !