Manybooks's Reviews > Superworm

Although Julia Donaldson's Superworm is a fun enough and poetically rollicking little story (and yes indeed, Axel Scheffler's accompanying illustrations are once again a visually engaging and expressive compliment to Donaldson's presented verses), personally (and indeed as an adult reader) I have found Superworm not all that much to my tastes. For while the story of how Superworm both helps other animals and also acts like a skipping rope, a fishing rod, a hula hoop etc. is definitely fun and engaging, I cannot help but be more than a bit worried that young children might end up for example digging up an earthworm from the garden to try to imitate all of this. However, even more of an issue for me with regard to Superworm is that the two main villains absolutely and obviously need to be an evil lizard and an evil crow, two animal species that have often had over the millennia an undeservedly nasty and negative reputation (and indeed, I really do wish that Julia Donaldson would not be perpetuating the myth and superstition that lizards and crows are somehow not to be trusted, are evil, greedy and vile in and of themselves). Therefore, I for one am definitely not all that much impressed with and by the stereotypical villain depiction and portrayals in Superworm. And indeed, I really also do have to wonder and question whether Julia Donaldson herself might have some deep down fears and phobias, hatreds regarding specifically reptiles and crows (as truth be told, even in many of her other picture books, in particular crows and reptiles are often both depicted and described as being and appearing rather negatively at best).