Garden Wigglers: Earthworms in Your Backyard

Backyard Bugs

by Nancy Loewen, Rick Charles Peterson (Illustrator)

Describes the physical characteristics, life cycle, and behavior of earthworms. Includes anatomy diagram and activity.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, 1st Grade

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Nancy Loewen grew up on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, surrounded by library books and cats. She's published more than 140 books for children. FOUR TO THE POLE (co-authored with polar explorer Ann Bancroft) and THE LAST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN were Minnesota Book Award finalists. Her WRITER'S TOOLBOX series received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers.

Nancy lives in Saint Paul and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University. She has two adult children and a cat who sometimes bites her knees under the table as she writes.

Reviews

[CanadianReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loewen frames her accessibly written text with a phenomenon observed by most grade-school children: the appearance of earthworms on sidewalks and driveways after a hard rain. She explains this behavior and provides a considerable amount of factual information about worms, including worm anatomy, movement, and reproduction--noting that earthworms have both male and female reproductive organs. Educators should perhaps be aware and prepared for the likelihood that some of the details about worm reproduction may raise questions in their young readers. Loewen is suitably matter-of-fact and low-key about these details. There is some sophisticated vocabulary here, especially related to worm anatomy. The book is divided into short, titled "chapters" of roughly four pages each, though most pages contain only a couple of sentences of text. A glossary, index, and very brief "further reading" section are included.
PM Benchmark Level: 24

[Jessika Judge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Non-Fiction (concept book)
Awards: n/a
Audience: ages 5-8 years old
A. The topic of this book is earthworms and how they function, their characteristics, and what they do for humans.
B. It is presented in a child-like way by the use of vocabulary they will understand. Also, the illustrations are shown in a cute way that kids enjoy.
C. The text features available in this text is the table of contents, glossary, bold words, and diagrams/labels.
D. The book could be used when educating children about earthworms. In a clinical setting, it could be used to help a child understand a concept (earthworms) and be able to describe it back to me.

[Megan Causey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Nonfiction
Awards: n/a
Audience: 5-7 years old
A. The topic of this book is earthworms.
B. This topic is presented in a child-friendly way because it utilizes simplistic illustrations as well as text to describe earthworms. It is easy to look at and is easy to read which allows children to be able to understand the subject.
C. Some text features found in this book are labelling, diagrams, and differing type sizes.
D. I would use this book in a classroom setting with a group of children in order to teach them about worms possibly before a science lesson/experiment with worms.

[Rachael Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonfic pic book. Good for a garden education tour.

[Stephanie Tabor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great book to read to learn about worms! Even I learned some new information!

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short, but informative book about worms. With a large font and big, colorful illustrations, this book will entertain children and keep their interest. The narrative isn't overly detailed and I would recommend it for children ages 5-7.

[Dina Jenkinson]

Useful for class study