Freckleface Strawberry: Loose Tooth!

In the third early reader featuring Moore’s redheaded heroine (following Backpacks! and Lunch, or What’s That?), Freckleface Strawberry is eager to lose her first loose tooth—so long as it happens at school, where the nurse will give her a tooth necklace like the ones her classmates have. Moore stages the action over four brief chapters, employing simple sentences and repeated phrases (“She did not want to lose it in her room. She did not want to lose it in the kitchen”). But while Freckleface’s eventual decision to take matters into her own hands provides a needed jolt of fun, the story and characters’ personalities feel quite muted. Ages 4–6. [em]Author’s agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Illustrator’s agent: Linda Pratt, Wernick & Pratt Agency. (Jan.) [/em]