Hello, I’m Dash. Come and join me on a fairyland adventure as we follow Tara the tooth fairy. I wonder who she collects teeth from? And why?

 Tara the tooth fairy

Tara is a tooth fairy. Her job is to collect teeth from all sorts of animals. Don’t get me wrong, she doesn’t take them from anyone’s mouth. Oh no, baby teeth have to be at just the right stage to be useful. The ideal time is when a baby tooth falls out to make way for an adult tooth. That is when it is ready to be collected by a tooth fairy. Even teeth that tumble out of mouths and fall into long grass, or fall into deep cracks in the earth, can be found by a trained tooth fairy.

Tooth fairies use their special wand to guide them to where a baby tooth is waiting to be collected. When found it is tucked into a special tooth bag, before being carried away. Generally, teeth are collected overnight. As you are aware, fairies are shy, so some, like tooth fairies, do their work during the night. That way there is less chance of someone seeing them.

In the morning, when the tooth bag is full, Tara takes it to the unicorn paddock. Here she ties it securely to one of the unicorns, who then carries it up to a sky fairy. Sky fairies live and work up amongst the big fluffy white clouds. It is here that they plant the teeth and nurture them, as you would any plant. Yet when the teeth grow, they become something very special. They become a star! Can you believe that? How amazing.

When they finish growing, the sky fairies send them off into the night sky. They start of as small stars, and over time grow even larger. The new stars replace the old ones or the ones that have fallen from the sky. That way we will never run out of stars. That is why collecting the baby teeth is so important. Without them we would not have stars.

Tara loves her job and has a busy night ahead. Her wand is tingling with excitement. Firstly, she heads into a burrow where a family of wombats live.  She must be quick because wombats are nocturnal, which means they are awake at night, and will be awake soon. In the far corner she sees a cute baby wombat tucked into a snug ball. Next to him there is a small rock. In the centre of the rock is a lovely white baby tooth.

‘His tooth is lovely and white.’ Says Tara to herself. ‘That’ll make its star shine extra bright.’

Tip toeing over to the rock, so as not to disturb the sleeping family, Tara picks the tooth up. The father wombat snorts, making Tara freeze. With another snort, he rolls, facing away from her. Tucking the tooth in her bag, Tara is ready to make her exit, when she remembers it’s not all about just collecting the teeth. 

The fairies appreciate that teeth are left out for them. They appreciate that they don’t have to rummage through rubbish, or dead leaves, or swamps to find them. So as a thank you tooth fairies like to leave a small gift. Tara searches through the magical satchel she is wearing. As she sticks her arm in, and feels around, she finds the perfect gift. A carrot. This little wombat may have never had one before, and Tara is sure it’s sweet juiciness will put a smile on his little face. Putting the carrot on the rock where the tooth had once been, Tara smiles then leaves the burrow. She has other teeth to collect tonight.

Heading towards a rocky formation, Tara sees some rabbits living in small holes in the dirt. Most are snoring away. One is thumping its foot as it dreams of running in a grassy field. Approaching slowly, Tara can see a baby rabbit off to one side. As she approaches, a small tooth is laid out on a green leaf.

Reaching into her satchel, she pulls out a small juicy cucumber. Carefully she swaps the cucumber for the tooth. When Tara thinks she has done a good job she looks up to see the mother rabbit with an eye open looking at her. The mother rabbit smiles then closes her eye, returning to sleep. Tara smiles too.

The next tooth to be collected is not too far away. As Tara flies over a few tall gum trees, past a banksia bush, then across a road, her wand vibrates. She is getting close to the baby tooth. Her wand directs her to a small human house with a bright red door. As Tara circles the building, her wand starts to glow as she approaches one of the windows. Inside is a sleeping human child. A girl who is about six or seven. Poppy is her name.

Sneaking in, Tara looks for the tooth. She looks on the bedside table. She looks on the floor. She looks in the cupboard. She asks a teddy bear, yet he has no answer. Standing on the bedside table she looks under a book about fairies. This makes her smile, as Tara loves it when humans are interested in fairies and their lives. Yet the tooth is not there.

As Tara is trying to work out where the tooth may be, Poppy rolls over. Her pillow flicks up for a moment then down. There is a glint of something.

‘Aha!’ Squeals Tara, before quickly shushing herself.

Tara jumps softly onto the bed. As she reaches under the pillow, Poppy laughs in her sleep. Pausing, Tara looks up to see if the girl is about to roll her way. At the Tooth Fairy Academy, they were taught how to dodge and roll, so that they didn’t get squished by anything, or anyone. Tara was ready to move, just in case, but Poppy just fell back into a deep sleep.

Reaching under the pillow, Tara’s hand searched for the familiar shape. Her fingers touched something soft and squishy. That, was not a tooth. Pulling it out, Tara saw that it was some chewed gum. Ugh! It took a few goes to remove it from her hand. It ended up flying across the room, landing on the cupboard door. Oh my. Tara did not have time to retrieve it, nor did she want to. Tentatively reaching under the pillow again, her fingers touched something firm and solid. Surely that was a tooth? No. It was a teaspoon. Why did a human child had a teaspoon under their pillow? Tara had no idea, though she kept looking for the tooth. Well, she hoped the tooth was under here, as she had looked everywhere else.

Tara couldn’t reach any further, so she climbed under the pillow. There were a few other nasty surprises under there, like candy wrappers and ice block sticks. Eventually she found the tooth. It wasn’t as white as it should have been. With all the sugary treats Poppy had obviously eaten, it was no surprise. The tooth had a yellow tinge and looked like it hadn’t been brushed recently.

Climbing from under the pillow, Tara removed a little brush from her bag and began to clean the tooth. Yellow teeth don’t make the brightest stars. White, clean teeth do. So, she polished it till it was a gleaming white. Satisfied with her cleaning job, Tara gently placed the tooth in the bag, then reached into her satchel for the thank you gift. She removed a small brown paper bag and placed it gently under the pillow. 

Her work here was done, so Tara headed off to the paddock to give the unicorn her tooth bag, so that they sky fairies could plant them.

A few months later Tara returned to Poppy’s house to collect another baby tooth. This time she found the tooth wrapped in a sheet of paper on the bedside table.

‘That will be easier than last time.’ Thought Tara.

As she unwrapped the tooth, Tara saw writing on the paper.

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I am very unhappy with the gift you left last time. I wanted money, and you gave me a silly paper bag full of seeds. This time, give me money.

Poppy

The note was quite rude, and Tara was tempted not to leave anything in exchange for the tooth. Though as most fairies are so loving and caring she did. It was another brown paper bag. Once again, she had to clean the tooth before placing it in the tooth bag.

Over the next year, Tara returned several times to collect more baby teeth from Poppy. Thankfully, there were no more mean notes. And on each visit, the teeth were getting whiter and cleaner. Tara was happy with this, yet had no idea why.

After the year, Tara arrived to find a tooth on a note with a small carrot next to it. She cringed at the thought of another mean note, and hesitated before she picked it up. Tara didn’t have to worry as it was a nice note.

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I am sorry for my bad note. It was horrible of me. I thought money was the gift I wanted. I like your gifts better. I did not know what to do with the seeds, so my mum took me to a place that sells plants. The lady there told me how to look after the seeds.

Mum and I built a garden near the back door. I planted the seeds. I watered the seeds. I looked after them real good. It was exciting when a carrot grew. It tasted better than the store ones. So did the beans and cucumbers. Mum made them into a salad last night. It was yummy.

I grabbed a carrot for you, so you can see how yummy they are. Thank you for being so kind. And leaving me gifts. 

Love Poppy

The lovely note brought a tear to Tara’s eye. It made her so happy. And she was even happier when Poppy’s pillow flicked up and she saw a toothbrush instead of lolly wrappers under there. Looking at the precious tooth in her hand, Tara smiled.

‘Her tooth is lovely and white. That’ll make its star shine extra bright.’

It is very kind that the tooth fairy leaves a gift as a thank you for baby teeth. Even though they don’t really have to. Poppy demanding what the gift should be, wasn’t nice. People give gifts out of the goodness of their hearts. Any gift, no matter how big or small should be appreciated.

Poppy thought she wanted money. Probably to buy sugary sweets. Yet she was given something she had never thought of. Thankfully she found someone to teach her about the seeds, and her mum helped her. This taught her a new skill, yet what was more important was that she grew something with her own hands. Actually, she grew enough to feed her family.

There is more reward in growing, building or creating something than just buying it. The reward is that we feel good about ourselves. Our glow inside grows, and that glow makes us feel happy and strong. It makes us a better person.

No matter what age you are, new skills are fun to learn. They may seem hard at first, yet I encourage you to persist. Even if what you create is not perfect, be happy that you achieved it. Be happy that you even tried. And know, that the glow inside of you is now brighter and stronger for it.

Thanks for listening. See you soon.