WORMS

A French import about an impish boy and one very impulsive decision he makes to liven up his father’s dinner party.

Surrounded by dreary, talking grown-ups, the young narrator is desperate to escape his father’s business gathering. So when it is suggested that John-Paul serve the salad course, he gratefully jumps up to the kitchen to obey. However, even with shrimp and almonds, the salads look a little plain. He decides they need an extra ingredient: worms! This turn of events makes the dinner party practically exciting. Each grown-up has a different way of dealing with the tiny trespasser on the plate. John-Paul giggles in delight until—GULP—he realizes there is one salad left to eat: his own. When he is introduced, he is wearing one green sock and one red sock, so readers glimpse right away this boy may not be as serious as his father hopes. Guillerey’s delightfully ink-scrawled, retro-style drawings and expressive tiny, pink worms add extra fun. The translation is a bit stilted in the beginning but perks up when the intruding annelids enter the story.

Readers may carefully pick through their lettuce from now on, just in case.