Close Modal

Wiggle and Waggle

Illustrated by Mary Peterson
Paperback
$6.99 US
6.31"W x 8.75"H x 0.15"D   | 5 oz | 100 per carton
On sale Feb 01, 2009 | 48 Pages | 978-1-58089-307-7
Age 5-8 years | Grades K-3
Reading Level: Lexile 300L | Fountas & Pinnell G
Follow Wiggle and Waggle, two wormy best friends, through five squirmy chapters for beginning readers! These pals work hard in the garden, digging tunnels to keep the soil healthy and give the vegetables room to grow. It's a tough job, but everything is easier with a good song—and a good friend. Of course, all work and no play makes for a dull worm. Wiggle and Waggle love to swim and make mud pies for picnic fun! 

Young worm fans will dig the simple science facts included at the end of this charming book.
The eponymous heroes of this early reader are two genial, googly-eyed earthworms who are also best friends. In five short chapters, Wiggle and Waggle (the latter, distinguished by a pair of glasses) learn that singing makes a job go faster; a difficult task—moving a big rock out of a tunnel—is made easier when individuals work together; and a rainy day needn’t be a spoiler if you have an upbeat outlook. Arnold’s (Super Swimmers) writing has an easygoing cadence and just the right amount of repetition (“They dug long tunnels, short tunnels, fat tunnels, and thin tunnels”), although her wrap-ups for each story can be fairly anticlimactic (after a day of singing and digging tunnels, Waggle muses, “We are a good team.... Let’s dig again tomorrow”). Peterson (No Time to Nap!) is all-around terrific, tightly cropping her environments to keep the action focused on her characters and conveying a sense of contrasting scale (an unharvested carrot dwarfs the two worms). As for the two leads themselves, they’re spunky, comically gangly and just vulnerable enough to be adorable. For youngsters smitten by this duo, a list of facts about worms and how they contribute to a healthy garden concludes this cheery collection.

Publishers Weekly
Caroline Arnold is the author of more than 160 books for children. She writes both fiction and nonfiction and recently has illustrated some of her books with striking cut paper art. To see prints and cards of her illustrations, go to www.etsy.com/shop/CarolineArnoldArt. Her newest book, Hatching Chicks in Room 6, will be available January 2017. Other recent titles include Living Fossils: Clues to the Past, A Day and Night in the Rain Forest, A Polar Bear's World, A Panda's World, A Warmer World, Too Hot? Too Cold? and many more. Her most recent fiction books are Wiggle and Waggle, a collection of five stories for beginning readers, and The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, a tall tale. For a complete list of books and more go to www.carolinearnold.com. View titles by Caroline Arnold

About

Follow Wiggle and Waggle, two wormy best friends, through five squirmy chapters for beginning readers! These pals work hard in the garden, digging tunnels to keep the soil healthy and give the vegetables room to grow. It's a tough job, but everything is easier with a good song—and a good friend. Of course, all work and no play makes for a dull worm. Wiggle and Waggle love to swim and make mud pies for picnic fun! 

Young worm fans will dig the simple science facts included at the end of this charming book.

Praise

The eponymous heroes of this early reader are two genial, googly-eyed earthworms who are also best friends. In five short chapters, Wiggle and Waggle (the latter, distinguished by a pair of glasses) learn that singing makes a job go faster; a difficult task—moving a big rock out of a tunnel—is made easier when individuals work together; and a rainy day needn’t be a spoiler if you have an upbeat outlook. Arnold’s (Super Swimmers) writing has an easygoing cadence and just the right amount of repetition (“They dug long tunnels, short tunnels, fat tunnels, and thin tunnels”), although her wrap-ups for each story can be fairly anticlimactic (after a day of singing and digging tunnels, Waggle muses, “We are a good team.... Let’s dig again tomorrow”). Peterson (No Time to Nap!) is all-around terrific, tightly cropping her environments to keep the action focused on her characters and conveying a sense of contrasting scale (an unharvested carrot dwarfs the two worms). As for the two leads themselves, they’re spunky, comically gangly and just vulnerable enough to be adorable. For youngsters smitten by this duo, a list of facts about worms and how they contribute to a healthy garden concludes this cheery collection.

Publishers Weekly

Author

Caroline Arnold is the author of more than 160 books for children. She writes both fiction and nonfiction and recently has illustrated some of her books with striking cut paper art. To see prints and cards of her illustrations, go to www.etsy.com/shop/CarolineArnoldArt. Her newest book, Hatching Chicks in Room 6, will be available January 2017. Other recent titles include Living Fossils: Clues to the Past, A Day and Night in the Rain Forest, A Polar Bear's World, A Panda's World, A Warmer World, Too Hot? Too Cold? and many more. Her most recent fiction books are Wiggle and Waggle, a collection of five stories for beginning readers, and The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, a tall tale. For a complete list of books and more go to www.carolinearnold.com. View titles by Caroline Arnold