CUTTING TEETH
This audiobook is read by January LaVoy and includes a bonus conversation with the author.
At the Little Academy, mothers fret over their preschoolers, who have developed an unsettling medical syndrome. The children’s odd craving for blood is considered relatively benign (to everyone except their beleaguered moms) until a young teacher is found dead and the only potential witnesses are ten adorable 4-year-olds. Then it becomes clear that the police are looking at the children as not just witnesses, but also suspects…and they’re watching their mothers as well.
Darby, Mary Beth, and Freddie have very different parenting styles,
This audiobook is read by January LaVoy and includes a bonus conversation with the author.
At the Little Academy, mothers fret over their preschoolers, who have developed an unsettling medical syndrome. The children’s odd craving for blood is considered relatively benign (to everyone except their beleaguered moms) until a young teacher is found dead and the only potential witnesses are ten adorable 4-year-olds. Then it becomes clear that the police are looking at the children as not just witnesses, but also suspects…and they’re watching their mothers as well.
Darby, Mary Beth, and Freddie have very different parenting styles, though they’re united in their love for their children. They’re not thrilled about the biting episodes sweeping through the class, of course, and they’re coping to various degrees with the pressures of being a good mom, which suddenly seems to include, in addition to everything else, offering themselves up as sustenance.
Each of them was there at Little Academy the day of the murder, and as the police begin to look at them more closely, their children’s ability to bleed them dry is becoming not merely metaphorical. Exploring the standards society holds mothers to—along with the ones to which we hold ourselves—and the things no one ever tells you about becoming a parent, Cutting Teeth is a witty, original story of parental love that asks if there is anything a mother is not asked to sacrifice for their children.
- Macmillan Audio
- Audio
- July 2018
- 11 hours 15 minutes
- 9781250897640
Buy the Book
$26.99
About Chandler Baker & January LaVoy (Narrator)
Chandler Baker lives in Austin with her husband and toddler, where she also works as a corporate attorney. She is the author of several young adult novels and her adult debut, Whisper Network, was a New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick. The Husbands was a USA Today bestseller and a Good Morning America Book Club pick. Cutting Teeth is her third novel for adults.
Discussion Questions
1. Motherhood plays a huge role in the narrative and comes in very different forms. Discuss the differences between Darby, Mary Beth, and Freddie’s parenting styles and how they impact the story. Compare and contrast the three mother’s roles in the murder. Whose role do you relate to the most, if any?
2. What do the characters of Cutting Teeth say about mothers’ role in our world? What’s the significance of the three women’s journey to reclaim their careers, sex lives, and bodies? Do you think motherhood can coexist with these facets of a woman’s identity? Are mothers allowed to create boundaries with children?
3. Are parents to blame for their children’s actions? Does nature vs nurture apply in this story? What is being a “good mother?” Can you be a good mother to a blood-thirsty child?
4. The. Ending. How did we get there? Do you feel satisfied by how the story wraps up? Do you have lingering questions, or thoughts?
5. Themes of motherhood and female friendship are rich within this story. Where in the novel do these themes intertwine? Is female friendship an inherent part of a mother’s support network? What does motherhood look like in isolation? How would the story be different if one mother was experiencing this situation?