How To Eat Fried Worms

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What stories have you encountered that include the most interesting problems or challenges for a person your age? Brainstorm a list of 3-5 stories (books, TV shows, or movies). What makes each story a good fit for this list? How can you connect with the main character’s problem in each story, even if you have never experienced the same challenge?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt introduces the theme of Overcoming and Learning Through Challenges and helps students access it through other books they have read with similar themes. How to Eat Fried Worms offers a high-interest conflict for readers;. Billy’s desire for a minibike represents a desire for freedom, and his engagement with Alan’s bet provides a way for him to grow in self-confidence—two points with which students might strongly connect. Additionally, many students will connect with his camaraderie with his friends and his parents’ desire to protect him. As students discuss why they included each story in their lists, you might encourage them to name specific literary elements—plot, conflict, character, theme—to explain their choices.

• Scholastic offers a list of annotated “Diverse Children’s Books Recommendations” that might offer points for discussing other elements in children’s literature.

2. What is Norman Rockwell known for?

Teaching Suggestion: It’s a fun fact that author Thomas Rockwell is the son of Norman Rockwell, and this can be a great way to introduce students to his work. You might introduce students to Norman Rockwell’s idyllic images, then suggest that How to Eat Fried Worms touches on similar themes of an American idyll—and common ideals of childhood. If appropriate, you might discuss whether this idealized vision of childhood in the United States still resonates with students today, and why or why not.

• The Norman Rockwell Museum has information about Rockwell’s life and artwork.
• A 1957 article from the Atlantic entitled “Norman Rockwell’s America” discusses Rockwell’s work within the context of its time.
• Lisa Rosen writes in the Los Angeles Times article “Wholesome Origins of ‘Fried Worms’” about the relationship between Thomas Rockwell and his father.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Have you ever had to do something difficult but eventually realized it wasn’t as intimidating as you thought? What was the challenge, why did it seem difficult at first, and what helped you overcome your concerns about it?

Teaching Suggestion: Establishing this prereading foundation will give students points of connectivity later as Billy eventually gets over the fears he has of eating worms. This also can be a good metaphor for encouraging students to think of new opportunities that might at first scare them as chances for them to enjoy something new.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who would benefit from a more visual approach, you might have them create a set of before-and-after pictures of encountering a new challenge and then coming to realize that it isn’t so bad. Encourage them to incorporate colors symbolically to illustrate their emotions.