DIARY OF A WORM is a fun slice-of-life narrated (or written, if you like) by a young worm who sports a red baseball cap. Cronin starts the verbal puns on the first page and continues them throughout, to the delight of children and adults alike. Her sense of humor shines through as sort of deadpan, or tongue-in-cheek, but still hilariously believable. The scene in which the young worms attend a school dance is one of the funniest in recent memory, “May 28. Last night I went to the school dance. You put your head in. You put your head out. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself about. That’s all we could do.”

Reading this book aloud with a straight face would be a challenge. When a class of third graders heard this book, they laughed freely and loudly. Many times, they needed a few moments to look at each other or to have someone explain before they “got it”, but when they did, they wanted to hear each pun again right away. As a matter of fact, the class unanimously voted to hear the entire story again right away.

However much the text style works with the character, the illustrations are the icing on the cake. During the hokey pokey scene, there are three pictures of the dancing worms, followed by one of the group looking at each other expectantly, worm mouths drawn into straight lines. It is so easy to see their thoughts by their expressions, it’s almost as if they had thought bubbles floating above their heads. Dad’s glasses and the teacher’s cat-eye eyeglasses add immensely to the personality of each worm, even though their bodies are essentially alike. The small touches in the pictures draw the reader in even further. Once one third grader noticed the worm’s textbooks had titles such as Digging: A History, and Knight Crawlers, a near mob scene ensued on the listening carpet. Eventually, a long waiting list had to be written up so that everyone would have a chance with the book

Although the story has no real conflict, Cronin has the worm wondering if it would be better to have some things others have, like legs. Worm comes to realize the great things about being a worm, like never having to go to the dentist. (Hint: Notice the dentist’s nametag) Hazel Rochman notes in Booklist, “There’s no sustained story here, as there was in Cronin’s wonderful Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (2000), but the hilarious vignettes of the worm-child with his family, friends, and enemies show the absurd in humans as much as in the wriggling creatures in the earth.” True, the silly humans scream at the playful worm’s sudden appearance, but even funnier is the skillful way in which Cronin takes very human situations and turns them on their heads. Although Booklist had this book listed as Preschool-Grade 1, children and adults of all ages will love to read and to share this book.

Rochman, Hazel. 2003. Review of Diary of a Worm in Booklist. 1 October.