View source for Arthur and the Earthworms by Johanne Mercier

{{infobox2
|title=Arthur and the Earthworms
|author=Johanne Mercier
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=A treat of a book for the boy used to people requiring bait to go fishing, but otherwise it might seem a little strange!
|rating=3
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=40
|publisher=Phoenix Yard Books
|date=February 2013
|isbn=978-1907912177
|website=
|video=
|aznuk=1907912177
|aznus=1907912177
|cover=1907912177 
}}

Arthur has got himself a new job.  He might be only seven but a boy can never start too soon.  He's going to be selling earthworms from a table at the side of the road and the idea came when his pet duck started pulling up the worms.  They were his favourite food, you see and on a rainy day you could find a lot of them just near the surface.  He and Grandad managed to get quite a few worms together, but trade wasn't very brisk on the first and the woman who was determined to buy his pet duck did rather scare him.  But the next day, trade picked up (although some of the customers did look suspiciously ''family'') and then the big order came in...

Arthur is seven so the book is going to appeal primarily to boys in the five to seven age group and I was delighted to see this - there are far more books which are going to appeal to girls than there are for boys.  It's a lovely story with some delightful interaction between Arthur's grandparents - Grandma is a lot more savvy than Grandad gives her credit for - and some real tension as Arthur tries to get all the worms together to fulfil his big order.

The read length - 36 pages - is sufficient for the young reader to have the pleasure of 'getting a book under his belt' without it being too daunting a task.  The pages are broken up by plenty of illustrations, some of them a full page and with a stunning white-on-black double page spread.  They're not just a treat to look at - they also give some useful tips as to what those difficult longer words might be.

My reservation about the story is that I don't think that many boys in this age group will relate to collecting earthworms to sell.  Children from a community where fishing is a regular occurrence will probably understand what's going on, but I can imagine that the average boy is going to wonder what on earth is going on.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

If you're looking for early readers for boys in this age group then [[Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross|Horrid Henry]] is always a good starting point.

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[[Category:Emerging Readers]]