Wobbly Postthe tooth fairy

The journey

Twenty letters, one per tooth, from the tide line where the first tooth washes up among the shells to the horse chestnut at the end of the garden. Along the way: a river that wanders, a signal box, a goldfish pond, a swinging bridge a mile up, a row of oaks, a fair, a lighthouse that has to be walked back from the cliff, and a hill with kites. Here are the stops. The letters themselves stay sealed until a tooth comes out.

  1. Tooth No. 1 Your First Tooth Has Arrived The Tide Line
  2. Tooth No. 2 The River That Wanders The River
  3. Tooth No. 3 The Signal Box The Signal Box at the Halt
  4. Tooth No. 4 The Roly-Poly Slopes The Old Gardens
  5. Tooth No. 5 The Swinging Bridge The Bridge, a mile up
  6. Tooth No. 6 The Row of Oaks The Old Road
  7. Tooth No. 7 The Goldfish Pond The Old Gardens, by the water
  8. Tooth No. 8 The Fair Comes to the Land The Fair Field
  9. Tooth No. 9 The Dream Bakery The Old Town, after dark
  10. Tooth No. 10 The Looking Over The top of the promenade
  11. Tooth No. 11 The Clay Pipes Under the Garden Path
  12. Tooth No. 12 The Blowing Rock The Rock, where the wind goes up
  13. Tooth No. 13 The Pavilion The Pavilion on the front
  14. Tooth No. 14 The Greenhouse The Garden behind the Shed
  15. Tooth No. 15 Kite Hill The Hill above the Footprints
  16. Tooth No. 16 The Library in the Old Hall The Ruined Hall, Old Gardens
  17. Tooth No. 17 The Lighthouse That Walks The Cliff Top
  18. Tooth No. 18 The Watch The Clock Room, Old Town
  19. Tooth No. 19 Fire Night The Fair Field, in the dark
  20. Tooth No. 20 The Horse Chestnut Somewhere, still growing

If teeth have already gone

This Special Delivery letter comes first. It is the only one we show in full, because every parent asks how the fairies explain the sudden upgrade.

A Letter From the New Fairy Post Office

The Fairy Post Office, top of the beach

Dear Maisie,

You may have noticed that this letter looks different from the ones before. Smaller. Neater. With a proper stamp. That is because of you.

For a long time the fairies of Toothfairy Land wrote their notes in a hurry, on whatever we could find, by the light of one tired firefly, and most of them never got sent at all. They went into a drawer. Then your teeth arrived, 0 of them, so bright and so strong that the Council voted (nine wings to one; Old Mossbeard was asleep) to build something lasting.

So we built the Fairy Post Office. It has a tiny printing press, a tiny stamp room, a tailor who sews the envelopes, and a very tiny desk where I now sit. The first thing I did was open the drawer. Every letter for every tooth you ever sent was in there, written and never delivered. They are in this bundle now, stamped DELAYED, one for each of your teeth, in order. Read one a night. They tell you what the Land did with each one.

The teeth you already gave are not forgotten. They are the foundation stones under the floor I am standing on. Thank you for them.

Your Fairy Glass is in the box. You will need it. The letters only get smaller from here.

Your new, official, properly-stamped fairy,
Pip

P.S. The press jams if you wiggle a tooth out before it is ready. Please let them fall when they are ready. The Postmaster is very particular.

Build the kit