Throw Your Tooth in the Roof by Selby B. Beeler

The story, Throw Your Tooth in the Roof by Selby B. Beeler would fall into the folk tale genre as well as multicultural/international.  The reason it is a folk tale is, because it explains the many tooth traditions and beliefs all around the world.  As for multicultural and international, it qualifies because it opens the door to traditions through out the world for students.  The book goes through numerous places in the world and explains what each child does with their tooth.  Some of the places are places such as, the US, Guatamala, Sri Lanka, Russia, France, Spain and Sweden.  The most common of the two traditions is, under the pillow and throw the tooth on the roof.  I found this interesting because I never thought of the different tooth traditions around the world and I definitely never thought there were as many as this book listed.  The tooth tradition I found most interesting is, Costa Rica traditions.  I thought it was most interesting because tradition calls for the parent to take the tooth, have it gold plated and made into an earring.  It would be hard to incorporate this story into the classroom because you might run into questions about the tooth fairy and it is hard to know where the students beliefs lie.  I think that this story would be a great book to read with a child before bed to learn about the different tooth traditions around the world.  I think you could put this story in a folk tale grouping as well as multi cultural because of all the in depth explanations around the world.

Note: This book is one of my Traditional/Folk Literature books