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A review by katherineg
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin, Lori Haskins Houran
3.0
In Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin chronicles the humorous adventures and thoughts of a young boy worm who shares many of the same concerns as human children. This humorous offering shares diary pages from the spring season of the unnamed worm’s life. The little worm shares with the reader his day-to-day adventures, including his mother’s advice (“Never bother Daddy when he’s eating the newspaper”), his adventures with his friend Spider, the dangers of being a worm (“Hopscotch is a very dangerous game.”), and the worm version of sibling rivalry (“My older sister thinks she’s so pretty. I told her that no matter how much time she spends looking in the mirror, her face will always look just like her rear end.”). These topics and many more are touched upon in the book, as the reader discovers that worms have good and bad days, just like the rest of us.
The writing is presented in the form of diary entries, with the young worm giving us a first person perspective on his life. Each entry can be viewed as a tiny narrative, while the book as a whole does not really have a long-term plot or story arc. A sense of completion is provided at the end of the book, however, when the worm tells us that although worms may be small, “the earth never forgets we’re here.”
While some of the worm’s adventures are unique to his species, such as the need to hide from fishermen searching for bait, overall young children will be able to relate to his problems. He fights with his sister, teases little girls, competes with his friend Spider, and dreams of what he hopes to become when he grows up – in his case, a Secret Service agent. All of the worm’s diary entries are warm and humorous, and children will likely get a big kick out of seeing familiar themes from their lives get replayed in the worm world. They may also find it interesting to consider the world from a worm’s perspective.
Harry Bliss’s watercolor illustrations add charm and appeal and unify with the humorous nature of the text. The artwork is somewhat cartoon-like, however, the reader is still treated to fairly detailed backgrounds and settings. Detail work in the art adds another layer of humor and depth to the story. On the title page, for instance, we see that the “i” in “diary” is formed by a picture of a pencil, while the “o” in “worm” is a picture of our worm protagonist curled into a circle. In another example, the worm complains about his homework, and we see him lugging a leaf behind him carrying his books, which are labeled “Digging: A History” and “Soil Through the Ages” – topics that worm education might center upon. Because the text is presented in diary form, we are not given any written description or explanation of what the worm world looks like, how things are accomplished etc. This part of the storytelling is accomplished through the pictures. We know the worm goes to school, for example, but the illustrations of him working at a desk fashioned out of a mushroom while he sits on a bottle-cap chair, eating his lunch of soil and dirt off of a leaf plate, and dragging his books behind him on a leaf-like “backpack” really fleshes out the text.
This is a delightful and entertaining book that children ages four to eight should really enjoy.
The writing is presented in the form of diary entries, with the young worm giving us a first person perspective on his life. Each entry can be viewed as a tiny narrative, while the book as a whole does not really have a long-term plot or story arc. A sense of completion is provided at the end of the book, however, when the worm tells us that although worms may be small, “the earth never forgets we’re here.”
While some of the worm’s adventures are unique to his species, such as the need to hide from fishermen searching for bait, overall young children will be able to relate to his problems. He fights with his sister, teases little girls, competes with his friend Spider, and dreams of what he hopes to become when he grows up – in his case, a Secret Service agent. All of the worm’s diary entries are warm and humorous, and children will likely get a big kick out of seeing familiar themes from their lives get replayed in the worm world. They may also find it interesting to consider the world from a worm’s perspective.
Harry Bliss’s watercolor illustrations add charm and appeal and unify with the humorous nature of the text. The artwork is somewhat cartoon-like, however, the reader is still treated to fairly detailed backgrounds and settings. Detail work in the art adds another layer of humor and depth to the story. On the title page, for instance, we see that the “i” in “diary” is formed by a picture of a pencil, while the “o” in “worm” is a picture of our worm protagonist curled into a circle. In another example, the worm complains about his homework, and we see him lugging a leaf behind him carrying his books, which are labeled “Digging: A History” and “Soil Through the Ages” – topics that worm education might center upon. Because the text is presented in diary form, we are not given any written description or explanation of what the worm world looks like, how things are accomplished etc. This part of the storytelling is accomplished through the pictures. We know the worm goes to school, for example, but the illustrations of him working at a desk fashioned out of a mushroom while he sits on a bottle-cap chair, eating his lunch of soil and dirt off of a leaf plate, and dragging his books behind him on a leaf-like “backpack” really fleshes out the text.
This is a delightful and entertaining book that children ages four to eight should really enjoy.