Witch Wizelda and the Talking Toothbrush – illustrated by Tali Niv-Dolinsky

On a very lovely day,

Not so very far away,

Way up high,

In the sky,

Flew Witch Wizelda

Through the air,

On her way

To who knows where.

Suddenly,

All of a sudden, that is,

With no warning at all,

Her faithful broom,

Began to stall –

Sighed and grunted,

Huffed and puffed,

Shivered and quivered,

And broke in two.

What was poor Wizelda to do?

She dived right down,

To the middle of town,

And there,

In the town square,

She ran into a girl

On her way

From here to there.

“Excuse me,” said Wizelda,

“Is there anyplace here where a witch can buy a broom?

I’m late for a date,  should’ve been there by noon!”

But instead of replying

In manner polite,

The girl stared,

In fact, she glared,

For quite a while,

At Wizelda’s smile.

Her teeth were grey, not white,

And uglier than a stormy night.

The girl, whose name was Anne Bessott,

At that moment forgot,

What her parents had taught her:

“Dear Anne, our darling daughter,

If a lady or man you meet,

Talks to you in the street,

And that person is a stranger,

Then it might mean danger.

So just say ‘good day’,

Turn around

And walk away.”

Perhaps, thought Anne,

Since a witch is not

A lady or a man,

The rule may not apply.

Anne took another look,

At the witch’s ugly teeth,

And this was her reply:

“Witch, witch, witchy witch,

Your teeth are like a dirty ditch,

And your mouth has the smell,

Of a rat in a well.

I think you should pay a visit,

To our dentist, Dr. Wizzit.”

The witch became extremely mad,

And as everyone knows,

A mad witch can

Be very bad.

And so Wizelda,

Now in a stew,

Being late, and angry, too,

Began to brew a spell for Anne.

“Tooth of rabbit, tongue of hare,

Skin of snake and mushroom mush,

Now this spell, I do declare,

Will turn Anne into a –

TOOTHBRUSH.”

And all of a sudden,

Suddenly, that is,

Anne was no longer there!

And in her place –

A red toothbrush, with a little face.

“Help me,” cried Anne,

“I’m sorry for speaking so thoughtlessly,

I don’t know what came over me.

Please turn me back if at all you can.

Being a toothbrush is very grim,

I’ll never talk that way again.”

“Well,” said the witch,

(Which well did she mean?)

“I suppose I shouldn’t have been so mean,

But once a witch has uttered a curse,

It’s hard to reverse it, or make it less worse.

“Well, let me see what I can do,

To fix the spell I put on you.

Zeus of Olympus, Helen of Troy,

Eyes of eel, foot of mite,

If a girl or little boy,

Learns to brush their teeth just right,

Then the spell

Will be dispelled,

As a girl you will return.

That’s it, and now I hope you learn

Your lesson well,

And so farewell,

I’m in a rush.”

And soon Wizelda

Found a hardware store,

And leaving Anne (who was now a brush)

On a shelf, near the door,

Bought herself a brand new broom,

Jumped up on it, and vroommmmm,

Before you could say “Martin A. Hay,”

The witch was very far away.

As for Anne,

She sat on the shelf near the door,

And cried and cried,

′Til her eyes were sore.

Then suddenly,

All of a sudden, that is,

A young boy came in,

Looking for a ping pong ball,

And heard the sound of crying,

Coming from the shelf on the wall.

“Please help me,” Anne cried,

“I’m over here.”

Tom looked far and wide,

Until he saw a little tear,

On the face of a red toothbrush.

Then Tom understood,

It was a brush that could –

Talk! He took it from the shelf on the wall,

Forgot about his ping pong ball,

And ran to tell everyone he knew,

That his new toothbrush could talk, and cry, too.

Of course no one believed a word he said,

And Anne, who was quite upset,

Stopped talking and crying,

So all his friends thought Tom was lying.

Tom, you should know,

Was a very good child,

Did all his homework,

Wasn’t wild,

Always tried his very best,

Studied for each quiz or test,

Got along with sister and brother,

Never talked back to Father or Mother.

He read a book every now and then,

Well, mostly then, but then again,

He was a pretty busy lad,

Soccer, swimming, bad-

minton and tennis too.

The only thing he didn’t do,

Which isn’t very clever,

Was brush his teeth,

No never, not ever.

Never in the morning, never in the evening, never at suppertime,

Perhaps he thought his teeth,

Would last forever,

Or a least, for a very long time.

Tom  liked to eat,

Anything sweet,

Chocolate, candies,

Berries and cream,

And every Hallowe’en,

Ate up all his “trick or treat.”

Every night while Tom was asleep,

The bacteria deep,

Within his teeth,

Had a little nighttime fest,

Making acid,

Which made little holes,

Well, I guess you know the rest.

One night,

Tom couldn’t sleep a wink,

The fourth tooth on the right,

Hurt like someone hit it

With a kitchen sink,

A baseball bat,

Or something like that.

So early next morning,

They hurried to visit,

The famous dentist,

Dr. Wizzit.

Dr. Wizzit looked at Tom’s teeth and hollered,

“Holy molar!”

“Tom, my young lad,

Your teeth are very, very bad,

I fear you haven’t brushed your teeth,

At all this year.

While you were out playing baseball and soccer,

Making home runs and scoring goals,

Bacteria were busy

Making tiny holes,

That grew bigger and bigger,

Every day,

You didn’t brush them away.”

Dr. Wizzit filled the tooth that was causing pain,

And made Tom promise,

Never to not brush his

teeth again.

“Twice a day,

morning and night,

And please remember

to do it right”.

On his way home,

Tom remembered  he was not alone,

‘Cause the talking brush was just

Where he forgot it –

Right there, in his back pocket.

Tom hurried to his house on Bothways Boulevard,

Looked both ways,

Crossed the street carefully,

Scurried across the yard,

And up to the bathroom

In great haste.

He took the red toothbrush,

Dabbed a little paste,

And just as the famous dentist taught,

Brushed each tooth with

special care,

Giving it everything he’s got.

Suddenly,

All of a sudden, that is,

The toothbrush started to

Shimmy and shake,

Hubba hubba bubba twirl,

And before you can say,

“Brush the bacteria away,”

Anne turned back into a little girl.

She was happy as pie.

Tom was amazed

(Can you guess why?).

Anne explained extremely well,

About Witch Wizelda

And the wicked spell.

Tom could hardly believe it was true

(I think it was, I do, don’t you?).

Anne was quite hungry,

So they hurried down to the corner store,

And ordered a sandwich and a glass of juice,

And then some more.

Tom bought a new toothbrush,

This time blue,

And hurried home to brush his teeth,

Just like Dr. Wizzit told him to.

Anne has learned her lesson well:

Whether you are

Wrong or right,

It doesn’t hurt

To be polite. 

And even Wizelda, one autumn night,

Looked into the mirror and what a fright!

Anne had been right!

Her teeth were ugly and smelly and gray,

So Witch Wizelda flew over to visit,

The famous dentist, Dr. Wizzit.

Her teeth are still not as white as snow,

But they’re whiter

Than they were, you know.

And to this day

children in many places,

With shiny teeth and

Smiling faces,

All rush to brush

Their teeth as best they can.

After all, who knows?

Maybe inside their toothbrush

There’s a little Tom or Anne.

Thank you for reading our book!

If you like it, you might also want to read:

What to Do with a Used Toothbrush

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