WIGGLE AND WAGGLE
by Caroline Arnold & illustrated by Mary Peterson
Arnold, known for her science nonfiction, tucks plenty of natural history into this quintet of easy reading tales. Singing a work song—“We wiggle and waggle, squiggle and squirm. / Digging in dirt is the life of a worm”—two earthworms aerate a vegetable garden, work together to shift a rock out of the way, picnic beneath a bucket on dirt rolls and bug juice, play in a rain puddle and, finally, at summer’s end, tunnel down for a long rest. Placing her worms in a well-tilled setting among healthy-looking veggies, Peterson endows them with smiles and goggle eyes, plus subtle differences in body color and, for Waggle, a pair of eyeglasses. An altogether agreeable visit to the garden, unsurprisingly capped by a page of additional worm facts. (Easy reader. 6-7)