What's the grossest thing you've ever eaten? Tongue, oxtail, durian? What if you had to eat worms, one a day, for fifteen days? That's the bet that Billy takes on in How To Eat Fried Worms, by Thomas Rockwell.
Tom will be Billy's second, and Joe will be Alan's. He can eat the worms any way he wants: boiled, stewed, fried, fricasseed. Joe and Alan will provide the worms, but there has to be one of them present when it gets eaten, to be sure there is no cheating.
If Billy can do it, Alan will pay him fifty dollars. That would be enough money to buy the mini bike that George's brother was going to sell before he leaves for college.
How bad could a worm taste? Billy had eaten fried liver, salmon loaf, pigs feet. Well...could he use ketchup or mustard or anything he wanted on it?
Yup.
Okay, the bet was on!
Trouble started from Day One. Tom was arguing with Alan and Joe, who wanted to dig the worm from a manure pile. They ended up digging up a night crawler from across the field. A big, fat, juicy, red night crawler.
"Awrgh!" cried Billy. "A night crawler isn't a worm!"
After consulting in the dictionary, they had to agree that it was a worm all right. A python-sized worm, maybe, but still a worm, and fair game. Ugh.
Billy glopped on ketchup and mustard and horseradish and a few drops of lemon juice, then salt and pepper. The next piece they added cinnamon and sugar, a bit of cheese, some cracker crumbs and Worchestershire sauce.
After he had eaten the whole thing, Billy got up, started flapping his arms like a big bird and hopped around the barn, crying, "Gute, gute. Ver'fine, ver'fine. Gute, gute."
The other boys looked on in shock. Billy started drooling from the mouth and hopped higher and higher, still flapping his wings...
You'll have to read the book to see what happened to Billy, and if he ever ate all fifteen worms, and what happened to the boys in the process.
This is a classic children's book that has been popular with kids since it was first published in 1973. Thomas Rockwell captures boyhood quite well, and the stuff they do to try to get Billy to lose is typical of what kids will get into. There are lots of crazy ideas and surprises.
Reluctant readers will enjoy this story, because they will want to keep reading to find out what will happen with the next worm, and the next, and the next. And the chapters are really short and easy to get through.
No, this isn't a cookbook. How To Eat Fried Worms, by Thomas Rockwell is a fun read about a crazy bet that might just happen with any bunch of four boys.
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