Susanna Hill reviewed this Perfect Picture Book several weeks ago, and I just had to add it to my collection and share it with you!
Title: Worm Makes a Sandwich
Written & Illustrated By: Brianne Farley
Publisher/Date: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers/2025
Suitable for Ages: 3-7
Themes/Topics: composting, worms, informational fiction, vegetables, gardening, humor, STEM
Opening:
Excuse me! Hello!
Can I interest you in a sandwich? I’d like to make you a sandwich, all by myself.
I know what you’re thinking.
You’re just a worm!
Worms are so little!
Worms don’t have hands!
They cannot make sandwiches.
But I can! I definitely can, I think.
I just need one thing.
Brief Synopsis: A worm sets out to make a sandwich for a young child.
Links to Resources:
· Check out this composting activity guide: Do the Rot Thing;
· Try some fun gardening activities with kids;
· Learn more about composting in the back matter.
Why I Like this Book:
What could be more fun than a talking Worm? A talking Worm that offers to make you a sandwich! But not just any sandwich, a sandwich that features a tomato that the Worm helped grow. Yum!
Filled with composting and gardening facts and some amazing peeks into the compost pile and soil, Worm Makes a Sandwich is a terrific lesson in composting, vegetable gardening, and the creatures that help make it happen, including that all-important Worm.
With can-do spirit and enough self-doubt to make him kid-relatable, Worm shows us how he and his “friends,” fellow bugs that Farley illustrates in sharp detail, eat the “garbage,” ie, composted waste, “and sometimes each other.” Of course, they then do what “everyone does.” Page turn: Poop!
I can’t imagine a child who won’t be laughing aloud, especially when they learn the poop isn’t for the sandwich (sorry for the spoiler alert!). Peeks under the soil, views of a seed germinating and growing into a young tomato plant, and many more details in the illustrations complete this funny and informative new picture book. Worm Makes a Sandwich is a picture book that kids and their adults at home and in classrooms will reach for again and again.
A Note about Craft:
Farley presents facts about composting in this all-monologue, humor-filled picture book starring a Worm. A Worm with an attitude and a voice that is full of confidence, except when it’s not. What an engaging way to capture kids’ attention – they’ll be enjoying the story so much, they won’t even realize they’ve learned about composting and gardening.
This Perfect Picture Book entry is being added to Susanna Hill’s Perfect Picture Book list. Check out the other great picture books featured there!
Wander, Ponder, Write 