Darwin's Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular

The bright and eye-catching front cover of Charles Darwin and a pile of poo is quite startling and will attract lots of children to pick it up. But underneath this light-hearted story is a very serious message: earthworms are the most important species on Earth. Their amazing poo provides nourishment for all plants and animals.

With brilliant illustrations by talented artist Gwen Millward, Polly Owen recounts the true story of how Charles Darwin studied earthworms for 40 years. The pages of this book are filled with the experiments he performed and the reasons he carried them out. For a long time people didn’t believe what he was telling them about worms, but in the end he published his findings in The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms.

Darwin considered worms to be superheroes: this picture book is filled with fun facts throughout, as well as a Wormy Facts page at the end. Young people will enjoy delving into this story and learning all kinds of information about worms; there was even a type of worm named after Darwin! In all there are about 3,000 species of earthworms!

The illustrations often include speech bubbles which work well, and the colourful, amusing pictures will hold a child’s attention. Finally, the author explains about how we can all care for earthworms and even join The Earthworm Society to support their cause. Any budding young scientist will adore this volume with its detailed experiments on worms taking place on the world stage! I enjoyed reading how Stonehenge was included in Darwin’s thinking; this book is a fitting tribute to one of our most famous scientists. Children and young people in homes, classrooms and libraries won’t want to put it down!