Worms. Bernard Friot. Illustrated by Aurélie Guillerey. Translated by Yvette Ghione. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 2015. 24 pp., hardcover, $16.95. ISBN 978-1-77138-571-8. Kindergarten-grade 3 / Ages 5-8. Review by Janice Foster. **** /4

excerpt:

I got the jar out of the fridge, unscrewed the lid and put one worm in each of the salad bowls. Then I rolled the cart out into the dining room, served the salads and sat down.

Children of all ages will readily connect to the opening lines of this delightful picture book: "I was bored. SO bored!" Imagine a young boy attending a dinner of the senior executives of his father's company and being introduced as their future boss. When asked to bring in the salads from the kitchen, he welcomes the chance to stretch his legs, and then the brilliant idea of worms enters his mind. Any young reader will be filled with anticipation to see how each dinner guest will react when discovering a worm in the salad.

      Author Bernard Friot provides the young audience with a very amusing tale of a small boy's prank at a formal adult dinner. The text is rich with simple but descriptive language that makes each character and the reaction to the discovery of a worm in the salad absolutely hilarious. Aurélie Guillerey's splendid illustrations provide wonderful, comical details, especially of each character's behaviour at the dinner. Together, text and illustrations will evoke howls of laughter as well as a few grimaces.

      Worms is an interesting and, in many ways, a novel picture book. As a short read-aloud, it will have a young audience laughing out loud. Many children might be unfamiliar with the specific setting of the story, but most children will easily connect to expected dining behaviour, especially with a group of adults. The hilarious and unexpected ending will likely have children wanting to hear the story again. Boredom, worms and a backfired joke are ingredients of a fun book for children of any age.

Highly Recommended.

Janice Foster is a retired teacher and teacher librarian in Winnipeg, MB.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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