Snail and Worm: Three Stories About Two Friends

by Tina Kügler

Overview

Combining deceptively simple art with clever wordplay, Snail and Worm—told in three comical, episodic shorts and ranging in topic from adventuring to having pets—will have both girls and boys delighting in the friends' silly antics, making it a perfect book for readers transitioning between picture books and chapter books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544494121
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Series:	Snail and Worm Series
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	BR (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Author-illustrator Tina Kügler lives in the Los Angeles area with her artist husband and three sons. When she is not making picture books, she can be found trying to befriend snails and worms in her backyard.
www.tinakugler.squarespace.com
Twitter: @tinatheatre
Instagram: @kuglertina

Editorial Reviews

"Snail and Worm’s direct, simplified dialogue is perfect for beginning readers, and their unabashed dopiness—equally evident in their conversations and in Kügler’s mixed-media cartoons—delivers a steady stream of laughs. "
—Publishers Weekly

"Kügler’s cartoonish creatures, rendered simply in thin lines and soft colors, each have comically googly eyes and cheery expressions, which add plenty of fun visual punchlines and context clues to the short, direct sentences making up the easy-to-read text...The heartening message about accepting a friend’s quirks is a cozy bonus."
—Booklist

From the Publisher

2016-02-17
Three stories told in mostly one-syllable sight words for beginning readers introduce yet another odd-couple pair of animal friends. Each chapter uses just 40 to 50 words of conversation between two invertebrate friends who share the roles of dimwitted innocent and slightly bemused foil. First, Snail talks to a rock named Bob, prompting Worm to introduce a stick named Ann. In the second tale, Worm cheers Snail's triumphal conquest of a flower that bends almost to the ground under its weight. In the third story, Worm's attempts at description are tripped up by Snail's overactive imagination. Snail imagines a terrifying spider as Worm describes a lost dog without ever using the word "dog." Unfortunately the quirky, animation-inspired illustrations do not match either Worm's description or Snail's imaginings, leaving readers clueless and just as confused as Snail when Worm's pet appears. The final twist, that Snail's pet is a "dog" named Rex that is clearly a spider, will puzzle rather than amuse young readers. The underlying problem with all these tales is that the humor is exceedingly understated and dependent on a sophisticated sense of irony; children struggling to decode the text will get little help from the illustrations. Friendship and the difficulty of clear communication are the basis for the conflict between classic duos like Frog and Toad, George and Martha, and Elephant and Piggie. None of these need to fear being replaced by Snail and Worm. (Early reader. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews