[Blackdogxx]

I play music with Phil Julian, the co-author of this book, and read it today.

It was a surprise that almost brought tears to my eyes, not because of what the book contains. I will explain...

When I was a child in east Tennessee, my grandfather would come to our house after a summer rain to collect 'night crawler' worms that the rain flushed from the soil. They made some of the very best bait for largemouth bass, and my grandfather was known as a skilled fisherman as well as a state champion skeet shooter in his youth.

Grandpa would use a popsicle stick to grasp a worm between the stick and his thumb so as to gently pull them from the ground... and then he would store them in a coffee can with dark dirt in it. I remember holding the flashlight as he did it and how exciting it was to help my grandfather actually do 'adult work' and hear him explain about fishing with worms.

Reading the 'Worm Tickler' and seeing the illustrations made me see grandpa again in my mind as clearly as though it were last week. I could see us together at my parents' front yard with that fresh rain and grass smell of east Tennessee in the air. It was magical.

This is a wonderful and short book that will teach a child several lessons, help them laugh, show them a connection among the earth, farm animals, and the food we get from a farm. What a perfect way to introduce children to learning about how our food was and is still made available to us in America.