Diary of a Worm

Diary of a Worm

Author: Doreen Cronin

Illustrator: Harry Bliss

Publishing Company: Joanna Cotler Books

Copyright Date: 2003

48 pages

Fantasy 

                I discovered this book through my school’s librarian. She suggested this book after I asked if she knew of any good books to use for some of my classroom assignments. Having great faith in our school librarian, I knew this would be a great book as she handed it to me, but as I started reading I enjoyed this book even more than I had originally expected. As the titled suggests, this book is a diary of a worm. Throughout his diary, he narrates the daily adventures he experiences. Although he is a worm, these entries follow the same format of what we would expect from most school aged children. These range anywhere from him telling his sister “no matter how much time she spends looking in the mirror, her face will always look just like her rear end” and the trouble he got in for saying such things to daily events with his friend, spider. Overall, I found this book to be very unique and humorous.

                The illustrations within this book really add to the overall text. They give students an inside look into the worm’s everyday life. These brightly colored illustrations seem to be completed with watercolors. These illustrations vary between double spread and single spread depending on the length of the journal entry. The text is placed at the top of every left page with the date, as how most diaries are laid out. An additional element that I really enjoyed was the front and the back pages of the book. These pages included images that appeared to be taped into the journal. I thought this element was really fun and added additional interest within the book. Overall, I really enjoyed the illustrations throughout the book. I feel that Bliss did a wonderful job with the illustrations in this book.

While this book is not your usual children’s literature piece, I would definitely use this book within my classroom. I think that both lower and upper grades would enjoy this book, but I would ideally use this from kindergarten through second grade. I feel that this book has many different aspects that could be utilized within classroom instruction. The first way I saw that this book could be used within the classroom is to read this book while teaching point of view. The worm’s journal is written much like an elementary age school child, but as you may expect, he does not see things the same way a human would. Therefore, I would have my students read his journal entry and then write the entry from the point of view of a child their age. The second way I saw that this book could be used within the classroom was with introduction of journals. I feel that this is a very creative way to get students interested in writing about their day within their daily journals. The third and final way I would use this book within my classroom would be within a science lesson. While this story is fantasy, it does embed several facts about worms. This book would be great as an introductory element to a more informational text that may be used within the science lesson. I feel that Diary of a Worm would be much more interesting for students to read than most informational texts.