How to Eat Fried Worms

• Genre: Fiction; middle grade humor
• Originally Published: 1973
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 560L; grades 3-7
• Structure/Length: 41 chapters; approx. 118 pages; approx. 1 hour, 50 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Billy needs a new minibike, so he accepts a $50 bet from his friend Alan to eat 15 worms in 15 days.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Name-calling; outdated language/gender roles

Thomas Rockwell, Author

• Bio: Born in 1933; grew up in Arlington, Vermont, where he attended class in a one-room schoolhouse; son of painter Norman Rockwell; attended Bard College; currently lives in Poughkeepsie, New York
• Other Works: How to Fight a Girl (1987); How to Get Fabulously Rich (1990)
• Awards: The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (1975); the California Young Reader Medal (1975); The Sequoyah Book Award (1976)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Overcoming and Learning Through Challenges
• The Fine Line Between Honor and Cheating
• Parallels Between Life and War

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the authorial context regarding Thomas Rockwell that also informs the approach to childhood that Rockwell takes in the novel.
• Read paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s topics and themes, including Overcoming and Learning Through Challenges.