The Worm Family Has Its Picture Taken by Jennifer Frank (review)

Since Mrs. Worm “did not have a very good memory because her brain was so tiny, ” she decides to capture her children’s charm in a photograph that will serve as a reminder. The oldest worm child, Emma, delightedly squirms around to tell all her friends, but their photographic experiences give her pause: Ellie the beaver mentions her family’s wonderful toothy smiles; Abigail the cat kvells over her gorgeous puffy fur; Olivia the butterfly happily recalls the rainbow beauty of her family’s colors. Since worms don’t bring much to the tooth/hair/color game, Emma decides to enhance her family with props and costumes. The photographer doesn’t recognize the family of costumed worms as his customers, though, so they shed their baggage, reveal themselves, and wriggle into a beautiful portrait where the five Worms are posed to say “Cheese.” There may at base be some kind of moral about being true to yourself here, but mostly this is an entertaining and loopy story of worms dealing with modern life, false teeth, and wigs. Stein’s mixed-media art has a polite, slightly Victorian air in the garden details, while the animals are intense and over-the-top cartoonish even before the reveal of the wonderful grotesquery of the made-up worms. Astute kids will inquire why even in their natural state the family members sport a few articles of clothing, which might lead to some entertaining discussion; most viewers, however, will just revel in the off-the-beam, James Marshall-esque story.