George Washington's Teeth

Citation

Chandra, Deborah, Madeleine Comora, and Brock Cole. George Washington's Teeth. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2003. ISBN 0312376049

Poetic Elements

The adorable rhyming verse picture book pays homage to our first president and tells of his struggles with dental hygiene in a way that children young and old will appreciate. The words are organized into four line stanzas and follow an ABCB pattern that is consistent throughout. There is alliteration littered throughout with phrases such as “...springs snapped...”, “...desk drawers...”, and “...pantry, parlors, halls...” but the focus lays squarely on the form.

Appeal and Overall Quality

This book is interesting in many ways. It gives a fascinating overview of the dental struggles faced by our first president, and it does so by referencing events from history that we would most certainly be familiar with already. The authors placed a timeline at the end of the book that list important events in George Washington's life, such as crossing the Delaware, the Revolutionary War, and becoming the nation's first president. However, this timeline provides status and updates to what was going on in his mouth at that moment in history. This provides a unique “dental” perspective on important historical events from our history. All of these revelations are drawn from his own letters, diaries, and accounts. The fun, slightly cartoonish illustrations follow the layout of the stanzas, with perhaps one illustration for the page or separate illustrations for each line of the stanza spread out over the two page canvas. Children will enjoy the lyrical quality with which the story is told, and they will most definitely appreciate this new information on our first president while underlining the importance of excellent dental hygiene!

Spotlight Poem

There is no single portion of this poem that I would use in isolation...I would use the entire book. It's an easy enough read

Follow-Up Activity

This book could be read just for fun, but it most certainly lends itself to a unit on presidents, dental hygiene, or even math as you could have the students count backwards as George Washington continues to lose teeth. The imagery and force of the words used to tell the story lend themselves to allowing the students to act out this book. I could see this up on stage with a narrator reading while other students act out the parts of George, Martha, the soldiers, his dentist, etc...what fun they would have!

Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a clever approach to history, Chandra and Comora string together spry stanzas describing the dental difficulties that plagued George Washington. Rhyming verse explains how the general's rotten teeth gradually fall out during the Revolutionary War: "George crossed the icy Delaware/ With nine teeth in his mouth./ In that cold and pitchy dark,/ Two more teeth came out!" Cole complements this verse by rendering a sly watercolor twist on Emanuel Leutze's famous painting George Washington Crossing the Delaware, in a full-spread treatment: Washington still stands in quiet dignity, but the boatmen are grinning. By the time Washington is elected president, just two teeth remain in his mouth. Kids will love the details, such as the way Washington uses a pair of his molars to fashion a mold from which the dentist makes a set of dentures (these are carved from hippopotamus ivory, and even shown, in a photograph in the afterword). Infusing his bustling watercolor vignettes with comic hyperbole, Cole easily keeps pace with the lighthearted narrative. One especially funny image shows the president sprawled on the floor, legs in the air, after viewing a newly painted portrait ("George stood up to have a look-/ He fell back on his fanny./ `It doesn't look like me!' he roared./ `It looks like Martha's granny!' "). An annotated timeline at the end includes quotes from the leader's letters and diaries chronicling his relentless efforts to hide his dental problems and the extent to which they caused him chronic pain and embarrassment. A highly palatable historical morsel. All ages.

Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* K-Gr. 3. Second only to kids' curiosity about George Washington and the cherry tree may be their interest in his teeth. Did the prez wear wooden dentures? Chandra and Comora set the record straight with wit, verve, and a generous amount of sympathy for poor Washington and his dental woes. Unfurling smoothly against a backdrop of Washington's career as soldier and president, the tale goes forward in sprightly, read-aloud rhyme that never falters: "Poor George has two teeth in his mouth / The day the votes came in. / The people had a President /But one afraid to grin." And illustrator Cole is at his absolute best here, totally at ease with human gesture and expression. Each spread is a tableau-like scene (or scenes) filled with costumed characters busily engaged in humorously visualizing the actual history. The color palette and energy of the art harks back to Cole's Buttons (1999), but there's much more detail and movement in these pictures, which work well as amusing preparation for the more sedately illustrated, annotated time line of George's dental decay that precedes a full roundup of historical sources the authors used in telling the tale. This is history for youngsters that will stick; it's wild and fun and factual, without a trace of mockery.

“A highly palatable historical morsel.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“This accurate and intriguing slice of history should find a place in any elementary school library.”—School Library Journal, Starred Review

“. . . breezy, sympathetic, carefully researched vignette . . . [one] that will have readers feeling the great man’s pain—and never looking at his painted visage the same way again.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Illustrator Cole is at his absolute best here, totally at ease with the human gesture and expression. . . . This is history for youngsters that will stick; it’s wild and fun and factual, without a trace of mockery.”—Booklist, Starred Review

“[A] carefully researched, very funny, charmingly illustrated picture book that works to humanize a larger-than-life historical figure and in turn, history itself. Brilliant!”—Amazon.com