76 pages • 2 hours read
Thomas RockwellHow To Eat Fried Worms
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1973A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Introduction
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- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Name-calling; outdated language/gender roles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.
