JENNY SMILES
Hi. My name is Emily.
I have a friend.
Her name is Jenny.
Jenny frowns.
Jenny always frowns.
She frowns when she jumps rope.
She frowns when she skips.
She frowns when she’s happy.
She frowns when she’s sad.
Jenny didn’t always frown.
It all started last week.
Her tooth fell out.
At first it was okay.
It was good.
She got money.
Her mom let her show us her tooth.
Then John started to pick.
John is a boy in our class.
“Snaggletooth! Snaggletooth!” he said when she laughed.
“Holey grin! Holey grin!” he said when she smiled.
She tried to keep smiling.
It didn’t work.
John sits right behind Jenny.
He taps her on the shoulder.
If she looks, he hides his front tooth with a finger and laughs.
She tried hard, only…we were in class one day.
In front of everybody he asked, “Hey, Jenny, when did you pose for this?”
He was holding up a picture of a jack o’ lantern.
Everybody laughed.
Even her friends smiled.
Jenny didn’t smile.
Now, she won’t smile.
She just frowns all the time.
Even on the playground.
Oh, no! Here comes John again.
He just sat behind her.
He’s writing a note.
He’s giving it to Jenny.
Jenny frowns.
I lean over to tell her not to read it.
Only, I read it, too.
It says, Now I am a snagl toth to.
Jenny gasps.
Her eyes are big.
She looks at John.
John smiles.
There’s a big hole, right where he used to hide his tooth.
Jenny stares.
Jenny giggles.
Jenny smiles.
I wrote this many years ago, when my niece became self conscious after losing her first tooth. I saw it in the files I saved from my old computer, and thought it might help another kid. As always, happy reading!
