Lynn Plourde - Children's Book Author

COUSIN RUTH'S TOOTH

AUTHOR: Amy MacDonald / ILLUSTRATOR: Marjorie Priceman
AGE LEVEL / LENGTH: 4-8 years / 32 pages
PUBLISHER / COPYRIGHT DATE: Houghton Mifflin Co. /1996
FORMAT / ISBN: Hardcover / 039571253X

Cousin Ruth's Tooth is a rollicking, rhymed story about Cousin Ruth who loses her tooth. Ruth's extended family searches "low and high" for the missing tooth. They turn the house topsy turvy as they check every place imaginable: "Check the hatbox. Check the cat box. Look inside the VCR." When they can't find the tooth, they try to whittle one from a stick, model one from clay, and even buy one at an L. L. Bean store. Still, no tooth. As a last resort, the family sends a fax to the Queen, who promptly faxes back her response, solving the mystery of the missing tooth. At the end, Cousin Ruth is all smiles (as will be all young readers of this humorous story).

Cousin Ruth's Tooth features the Fister family and is a follow-up to a 1990 book called Rachel Fister's Blister, by the same author and illustrator team. The rhyming text of Cousm Ruth's Tooth begs to be read aloud over and over, and the zany watercolor illustrations beg to be inspected time and again (perhaps even with a magnifying glass so as not to miss a speck of humor).

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1. The Fister clan tries to buy Cousin Ruth a new tooth at an L. L. Bean store. Visit L. L. Bean in Freeport, Maine, or look into one of their catalogues. Do you think the Fisters will find a tooth at L. L. Bean? Maybe not, but they may find plenty of other things. Make a list of ten unusual items that can be found at L. L. Bean. Then do a little research on the company. Try to find out what year the store was started, how many visitors they get at the store each year, how many different items they offer for sale.

2. Study the rhyming pattern in Cousin Ruth's Tooth. Which lines rhyme? Is the pattern the same throughout the book? Try to create two additional pages to the book. Add different zany places where the Fister family might search for the missing tooth. When creating your pages, try to follow Amy MacDonald's rhyme pattern. Create crazy illustrations to go along with your words.

3. Even though the characters in this book might appear at first glance to be from an earier time in history, they actually do some very contemporary things. Go back over the text and the illustrations and make a list of all the words and drawings that have current references (e.g., VCR, fax).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amy MacDonald has lived in Maine since 1988, but she spent summers on Mt. Desert Island as a child. She and her husband (who is British) moved to Maine when he began his job as the director of the Maine Audubon Society. MacDonald decided when she was in fifth grade that she wanted to become a writer, largely because a teacher encouraged her. She has written everything from news articles and feature stories to books and plays. Her children's books include Rachel Fister's Blister, the Let's Explore board books, The Spider Who Created the World, and No More Nice (which has a character based on a great-aunt MacDonald visited in Sorrento, Maine). MacDonald came to write her first children's book Little Beaver and the Echo (see page 56) when she was staying at a pond with an echo. Her young son had never heard an echo. She decided to write a book that would tell him about echoes; she wrote it in 45 minutes! The pond where she lived for many summers had a beaver lodge at one end, and as a child she loved to canoe and watch the beavers. Thus the beaver was a natural choice for the main character. Currently, MacDonald lives with her husband and three children in Falmouth, Maine. Her hobbies include canoeing, hiking, skiing, and swimming. She is also the president of a small theater company.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Marjorie Priceman grew up on Long Island. She now lives in New York City. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is the author and illustrator of Friend or Frog and How to Make Apple Pie and See the World. She also has illustrated books by other authors, including A Mouse in My House by Nancy Van Laan, A. Nonny Mouse Writes Again by Jack Prelutsky, and Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss.

COUSIN RUTH'S TOOTH AUTHOR: Amy MacDonald / ILLUSTRATOR: Marjorie Priceman AGE LEVEL / LENGTH: 4-8 years / 32 pages PUBLISHER / COPYRIGHT DATE: Houghton Mifflin Co. /1996 FORMAT / ISBN: Hardcover / 039571253X Cousin Ruth's Tooth is a rollicking, rhymed story about Cousin Ruth who loses her tooth. Ruth's extended family searches "low and high" for the missing tooth. They turn the house topsy turvy as they check every place imaginable: "Check the hatbox. Check the cat box. Look inside the VCR." When they can't find the tooth, they try to whittle one from a stick, model one from clay, and even buy one at an L. L. Bean store. Still, no tooth. As a last resort, the family sends a fax to the Queen, who promptly faxes back her response, solving the mystery of the missing tooth. At the end, Cousin Ruth is all smiles (as will be all young readers of this humorous story). Cousin Ruth's Tooth features the Fister family and is a follow-up to a 1990 book called Rachel Fister's Blister, by the same author and illustrator team. The rhyming text of Cousm Ruth's Tooth begs to be read aloud over and over, and the zany watercolor illustrations beg to be inspected time and again (perhaps even with a magnifying glass so as not to miss a speck of humor). LEARNING ACTIVITIES 1. The Fister clan tries to buy Cousin Ruth a new tooth at an L. L. Bean store. Visit L. L. Bean in Freeport, Maine, or look into one of their catalogues. Do you think the Fisters will find a tooth at L. L. Bean? Maybe not, but they may find plenty of other things. Make a list of ten unusual items that can be found at L. L. Bean. Then do a little research on the company. Try to find out what year the store was started, how many visitors they get at the store each year, how many different items they offer for sale. 2. Study the rhyming pattern in Cousin Ruth's Tooth. Which lines rhyme? Is the pattern the same throughout the book? Try to create two additional pages to the book. Add different zany places where the Fister family might search for the missing tooth. When creating your pages, try to follow Amy MacDonald's rhyme pattern. Create crazy illustrations to go along with your words. 3. Even though the characters in this book might appear at first glance to be from an earier time in history, they actually do some very contemporary things. Go back over the text and the illustrations and make a list of all the words and drawings that have current references (e.g., VCR, fax). ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amy MacDonald has lived in Maine since 1988, but she spent summers on Mt. Desert Island as a child. She and her husband (who is British) moved to Maine when he began his job as the director of the Maine Audubon Society. MacDonald decided when she was in fifth grade that she wanted to become a writer, largely because a teacher encouraged her. She has written everything from news articles and feature stories to books and plays. Her children's books include Rachel Fister's Blister, the Let's Explore board books, The Spider Who Created the World, and No More Nice (which has a character based on a great-aunt MacDonald visited in Sorrento, Maine). MacDonald came to write her first children's book Little Beaver and the Echo (see page 56) when she was staying at a pond with an echo. Her young son had never heard an echo. She decided to write a book that would tell him about echoes; she wrote it in 45 minutes! The pond where she lived for many summers had a beaver lodge at one end, and as a child she loved to canoe and watch the beavers. Thus the beaver was a natural choice for the main character. Currently, MacDonald lives with her husband and three children in Falmouth, Maine. Her hobbies include canoeing, hiking, skiing, and swimming. She is also the president of a small theater company. ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR Marjorie Priceman grew up on Long Island. She now lives in New York City. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is the author and illustrator of Friend or Frog and How to Make Apple Pie and See the World. She also has illustrated books by other authors, including A Mouse in My House by Nancy Van Laan, A. Nonny Mouse Writes Again by Jack Prelutsky, and Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss.
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