The Amazing and True Story of Tooth Mouse Pérez
by Ana Cristina Herreros (Author) Violeta Lópiz (Illustrator)
Does every country have a Tooth Fairy? Well, in Spain and other Spanish- speaking countries, it happens to be a Tooth Mouse, and this is his story!
Long ago, throughout the Spanish-speaking world, the Tooth Mouse brought children their permanent teeth, strong and straight as a mouse's. Tracing the Tooth Mouse's beginnings through to his descendants, this book artfully weaves the Tooth Mouse's changing habits as the world industrializes, with the growing independence of the child, as teeth fall out and the child learns to care for themselves.
It's also a playful, thought-provoking history of our changing world--as even Tooth Mice and children must adapt their customs when faced with the culture-shifting forces of urbanization, migration, and capitalism...Just remember, magic can always be recovered, and the real gift in losing baby teeth is growing up!
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Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal
Gr 2-5--According to this Spanish folktale, today's tooth fairy descended from tiny mice who lived in thatched roofs and collected baby teeth, enabling children to grow. The text-heavy tale employs second-person narration to draw readers in as Herreros recounts how Tooth Mouse Pérez had children, one of whom married an ant, sprouted wings, and eventually became the gift-giver we know today. Warm, pencil-textured illustrations feature Leonni-style mice as well as surprising hiding spots for molars that will keep readers engaged where the text is stilted or overly detailed: "Now whenever he collected a baby tooth from a child, he would leave a small gift or coin in its place. (This exchange is called 'bartering' if a gift is left, and 'buying' if it's money.)" These details may please some readers, but do interrupt the tale. VERDICT Most effective as a read-aloud, this dense history/myth doesn't quite meet its stated goal of being a story about magic and growing up but does offer a whimsical and informative element to the folklore collections of upper elementary libraries.--Rebecca Kirshenbaum
Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Publishers Weekly
Via a lengthy reportorial account, the creators of The True Story of a Mouse Who Never Asked for It present a thorough faux-documentary about the Spanish Tooth Mouse, whose job was to collect and replace lost baby teeth with adult versions "as strong and straight as mice teeth." Herreros traces changes in custom from people throwing lost baby teeth up onto rooftops, to leaving them in a chimney or stovepipe, to tucking them underneath children's pillows. The narrative also recounts the story--documented, it indicates, by a priest for a young Spanish prince--of a 19th-century Tooth Mouse, who lived in a candy store on a fashionable Madrid street and acquired the surname Pérez. Subsequent pages describe the growing Pérez family, an eventual alliance with the Tooth Ants of Italy, and the immigration of the resultant winged beings to the U.S., where they were perceived as tooth fairies. Warm, densely textured drawings by Lópiz provide notes of cheery surrealism, as a Tooth Mouse wears a chef's toque the size of a molar and winged entities dance across the surface of a vinyl record. Across the woolgathering prose, one thing is certain: losing teeth, Herreros writes, signifies "the gift of growing up." An author's note concludes. Ages 7-10. (Mar.)
Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
★ "An examination of that universal milestone signaling maturation—losing a tooth—that also offers a tongue-in-cheek history of tooth collection... Lópiz's softly textured compositions, populated by Lionni-esque rodents, offer whimsical scenes that readers will linger over. In a brilliant parody of Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas, Pérez's daughters, decked out in cupcake liner skirts, confer in a candy shop that mirrors the setting of its inspiration. Herreros' experience as a professional storyteller comes through clearly. Although the text, translated from Spanish and drawing from actual Spanish myths, may seem wordy, Herreros' deadpan tone, second-person form of address, and folktale cadences will keep listeners rapt. A deeply humorous, beautifully imaginative celebration of growing up." —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
"When baby teeth fall out, why do children put them under their pillows? Why do parents sneak in at night and swap the teeth for money? To judge from the fanciful history told in The Amazing and True Story of Tooth Mouse Pérez, such rituals began as a means of ensuring that nice straight adult teeth would grow in... As time passed and houses got taller, we learn how the practice evolved into the custom we know today from the career of one Tooth Mouse Pérez, who moved to Madrid at the end of the 19th century with his family. In Violeta Lópiz's soft-edged, humorous illustrations, we see the Pérez mouselings in a tableau modeled on the Velázquez painting 'Las Meninas, ' with the girl-mice wearing full skirts made of cupcake wrappers. This chatty and inventive account for 5- to 9-year-olds, which is translated from the Spanish by Sara Lissa Paulson and draws on an old Spanish narrative, eventually migrates, as it were, to other countries, presenting a witty and unexpected origin story for the creature we call the Tooth Fairy." —Wall Street Journal"Warm, densely textured drawings by Lópiz provide notes of cheery surrealism, as a Tooth Mouse wears a chef's toque the size of a molar and winged entities dance across the surface of a vinyl record." —Publishers Weekly
"Warm, pencil-textured illustrations feature Leonni-style mice as well as surprising hiding spots for molars that will keep readers engaged... Offer[s] a whimsical and informative element to the folklore collections of upper elementary libraries." —School Library Journal
Ana Cristina Herreros, a philologist and folklore specialist, combines her work as an editor with her day job as a professional storyteller, performing under the name Ana Griott since 1992. In addition to running her own publishing house, Libros de las Malas Compañías, she has written several books about folktales, including The True Story of a Mouse Who Never Asked for It (a New York Times Best Children's Book of 2021), which is also illustrated by Violeta Lópiz.
Violeta Lópiz is a Spanish illustrator currently living in Peru. She has illustrated numerous books, including three with Enchanted Lion: The Forest (a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2018), The True Story of a Mouse Who Never Asked for It (a New York Times Best Children's Book of 2021), and At the Drop of a Cat. She has participated in exhibitions in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Israel, Turkey, USA, Japan, Korea, and more. El Cultural, the supplement of El Mundo, considers her one of the top ten names of contemporary Spanish illustration. Her work can be found in books, newspapers, and the thousands of notebooks that she leaves scattered around.
Sara Lissa Paulson learned Spanish in the streets of Sevilla with Antonio Marín Márquez, his bandmates, friends, and family. There, she got her first translation job at age 19 for a local music zine. Her degrees are in Comparative Literature, Spanish, Bilingual Education, and Library Science. She has worked as a children's librarian in NYC's alternative elementary and high schools for over 21 years, reading aloud day in and day out, and teaches future librarians of all ages at Queens College's Graduate School of Library and Information Studies.
JUV039090 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | New Experience
JUV015020 - Juvenile Fiction | Health & Daily Living | Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries
JUV012030 - Juvenile Fiction | Fairy Tales & Folklore | General
Picture books
Teeth
