''How to Eat Fried Worms'' is a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

written by Thomas Rockwell, first published in 1973. The novel's plot involves a boy eating

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wo ...

s as part of a

bet Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

. It has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

list of most commonly challenged books in the United States This list of the most commonly challenged books in the United States refers to books sought to be removed or otherwise restricted from public access, typically from a library or a school curriculum. This list is primarily based on U.S. data gather ...

of 1990-2000 at number 96. It was later turned into a ''

CBS Storybreak ''CBS Storybreak'' is a Saturday morning anthology television series that originally aired on the CBS network from 1985 to 1989. Hosted by Bob Keeshan (and in its 1993 return by Malcolm-Jamal Warner), the episodes are half-hour animated adaptation ...

'' episode in the mid-1980s, and a movie of the same name in 2006. The story continues in two sequels: ''How to Fight a Girl'' and ''How to Get Fabulously Rich''.

Plot summary

Alan challenges Billy to eat a worm a day for 15 days. The winner gets $50. Tom prepares the worms in a variety of ways to make them more appetizing, using

condiment A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separat ...

s such as

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among o ...

mustard Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, seeds of the mustard p ...

horseradish Horseradish (''Armoracia rusticana'', syn. ''Cochlearia armoracia'') is a perennial plant of the family Brassicaceae (which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, cabbage, and radish). It is a root vegetable, cultivated and used worldwi ...

, and maple syrup. His parents eventually find out about the bet, but he is allowed to finish and eventually wins. Billy drives his newly-won mini-bike over to his usual lunch-spot and we hear that he's gotten so used to eating worms, he now can't stop.

References

{{Portal , Children's literature 1973 American novels American children's novels American novels adapted into films CBS Storybreak 1973 children's books Mark Twain Awards