Author: Thomas Rockwell
Title: How To Eat Fried Worms
Rating: 4
Reviewer: TK Grade: 6
Review:
This story is about four boys who make a bet about worms. Billy is forced to eat fifteen worms, one a day. No one knows if Billy can do it, but he has eaten fried liver, salmon loaf, mushrooms, tongue, and pig's feet. Alan and Joe were on one side, and Tom and Billy on the other. The winner gets fifty dollars.
Billy is a very stubborn boy, He starts to get scared about eating the worms because he keeps thinking about them, even though they can be fried and smothered in ketchup. Simply, Tom can put anything on it. They can find the worms anywhere, even in the manure pile. The worms can be any size, even if they are night crawlers. Billy's mother had to be the referee for two days because Alan and Joe had to go fishing with Joe's father.
Tom was on Billy's side. He could cook the worm however he wanted. The bet started because Tom's mother got mad at Tom for not eating his dinner, a salmon casserole, and kept him in. Billy said that he would take at least two bites, but Tom said that he would not take even one bite. Then Alan said that Billy could not eat this and that, and finally, settled on a worm and made up the rules. Then they chose sides.
Alan was a very skinny boy with knobbly legs. He was a small, hervos, gnawing at his thub naill, face smudged, red hair mussed, shirttail hanging out, and a boy who had his shoelaces untied. He kept trying to trick Billy. Once, he glued two worms together, but Billy found that out. Joe always though up new plans, but Alan got worried when he found out that his father would not show him fifty dollars, and worried about his father talking to their family of "Alan's bet."
Joe was a small boy, with dark hair with a long nose and big brown eyes. He had to make up a story with his father because Alan and he kept expecting Billy to keel over when eating the fourth worm. He said that when Joe told his sister about the bet, their father heard and shook Joe until he looked like a puppet and told Joe that it was for his own good. Then Joe's mother came in, and Joe's father told her the story, then she fainted. So Joe went on and on, Joe's mother being shaken and weak. Billy and Tom found out that they were lying when their sneezing started to look like giggling.
Billy's stubborness helped because Alan was frightened and worried abot what would happen if he lost. He later got out of his mind when Billy got to the fifteenth worm. This story shows how a bet can turn into a sucess for one, and a failure for another.
8/25/03
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