Jenny and Josh is a series of books about the daily occurrences in the life of growing children. It involves events important to them, like the loss of a tooth, the fear of a nightly thunderstorm, isn’t the bank going to give us money? Why is our skin all kind of different colors? We will follow Jenny and Josh, two young siblings, through their early years’ growing up journey.

Loosing a baby tooth is a big event in children’s young lives! The fear of feeling pain is usually eased by the thought of the reward the Tooth Fairy will bring overnight. But what if the child is sleeping in a different bed, in a different country; will the Tooth Fairy know where to go to collect the fallen tooth and leave the reward?

A brief history of the Tooth Fairy:

Centuries ago, in Europe, when a child’s baby tooth fell it was customary to bury it in the ground with the belief that a new tooth would grow in its place.

As long ago as the Vikings’ time children’s teeth were said to bring good luck in battle and warriors would hang them on a string around their neck. It is said that the children received some sort of payment for their teeth.

When, eventually, most people left the fields and moved to towns and cities, land wasn’t always available any longer, and people began placing baby teeth in flower pots. After which teeth are placed under a child’s pillow or a glass on their night table. The parents’s task is to quietly exchange the fallen tooth with some money during the night, when the child is asleep.

Curious children wanted to know what happened to their fallen teeth; the Tooth Fairy was born. The myth of the Tooth Fairy helps assuage and comfort children fearful of the pain that might result from the loss of a tooth. Also, parents use it to encourage their kids to take care of their oral hygiene as it is made known to children that the Tooth Fairy will reward them more for a perfect tooth than for a decayed one. Tooth Fairies have been known to leave appreciative notes praising the children for their good dental habits.

Contrary to the looks of other famous folk characters like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, over the arc of time the Tooth Fairy has been rendered in different shapes and sizes: from animals like mice, cats, dogs, beavers and squirrels, to human males or females of various ages. Jenny’s is a modern, green haired, purple skinned Tooth Fairy. She is well traveled, able to find Jenny anywhere in the world, and smart enough to know what kind of currency to bring her in exchange for her baby teeth.

I’ll see you tomorrow with more from Jenny and Josh.

Fun fact:

Once, while in Switzerland, a Tooth Fairy friend of grandmother’s left one Swiss Franc for our little boy’s fallen baby tooth. Either she particularly liked that tooth, or she was very generous, or math wasn’t her thing and she didn’t realize that with the current exchange she was overpaying. The good thing is that our little fellow was too young to realize that when back in the States the Tooth Fairy would short change him of about 50 cents for each of the baby teeth that would fall next!