Alison McGhee's book Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth is a book about a little girl who is tricked by a second grader to believe that her teacher is a "purple-tongued, 300 year old alien that steals the teeth of earthling children. She is so worried that her teacher is going to try to steal her loose tooth, but when it eventually pops out she realizes the trick the girl played on her.

Cute book about about losing a tooth! Also loved the illustrations, reminded me of a peanuts comic strip a bit! Would be an awesome read aloud for the first day of school!

A funny story about a girl who is afraid of losing her teeth because she has been told her teacher is an alien who steals baby teeth. ( )

Summary:
This story is about a little girl that is starting first grade today. On her way to school, a second grader began warning her about Mrs. Watson, a first grade alien teacher posing as a human, that steals baby teeth from her students. This of course put a lot of fear into the first grader, especially since she currently had her first loose tooth. Once she got to class, she was too afraid to even open her mouth and speak. Each time the teacher would ask questions and try to get students to engage, as much as the little girl wanted to talk, she remained quiet. By accident, she ended up losing her tooth, and realized that Mrs. Watson wasn't so bad after all.

Personal Reaction:
I thought this was a cute story. Unfortunately, there are those children that do tend to be cruel to others, but this story proves that we can't believe everything that we hear. It's important that we form our own opinion and to give things a chance, even if we are scared. I think this story would be a great addition to a classroom library. The narrator was the first grader. Throughout the story, each time someone would speak, words appeared in a talk bubble. When the narrator had a thought, words were put in a thought bubble, which had a different appearance than the talk bubble. I thought this was unique and helped separate spoken words from thoughts.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. Losing a tooth can be both scary and exciting. I would have students write a story about the first tooth that they lost. How did you feel? What was it like? How did you lose your tooth?
2. In the story, the second grader tries to scare the first grader about Mrs. Watson. She depicts Mrs. Watson as a 300 year old alien, with a purple tongue, that steals her students baby teeth. I would have students draw and color a picture of what they think Mrs. Watson would look like if she really was an alien. ( )

This story is about a little girl who is frightened by her teacher because her peers told her that Mrs. Watson wanted all of her student's teeth. When the little girl's tooth becomes loose she doesn't want to speak because she is afraid it will fall out in front of her teacher. Eventually, her tooth does fall out and she finds out that her peers were wrong and her teacher gives her a gift instead of stealing her tooth. This book teaches students to not always believe what their peers say, and to figure things out for themselves.

My favorite thing about this book was the detail in the backgrounds of the images. There were posters on the wall that revolved around "teeth" (the theme of the book). One was a book fair poster with books titled "Harry Plotter and the huge cavity".
I also really enjoyed that this book was almost a follow up from Alison McGhee's book "Countdown to Kindergarten".
This time the main character was afraid of her first grade teacher from a rumor that she is a three hundred year old alien who takes children's teeth and has a purple tongue. Of course at the end of the book the main character finds out she isn't and gets a piece of candy from the treat box for losing a tooth. ( )