J. J. Austrian

Worm and Worm declare their love and keep their cool through all their wedding preparations even as they have to repeatedly help their tradition-bound friends remove their heads from their butts.

"That's how it's always been done" is one of the worst phrases in the human lexicon.

When Worm falls in love with Worm, the next step is marriage. But the course of lumbricine love never did run smooth, and our two earth-burrowing heroes (heroines?) find that their friends and acquaintances have a number of preconceived notions about how marriage ceremonies ought to work. From Cricket, who informs them that someone (perhaps himself?) needs to marry them, to Beetle and the Bees, who offer to be the best man and 'bridesbees,' respectively, all the other creatures chime in with show more suggestions and offers. Worm and Worm are agreeable, and after much negotiation - both can be grooms, and both can be brides, as the case may be - the marriage finally gets under way...

A sweet look at the social expectations that often surround marriage, and how those can be adjusted and adapted in the case of less traditional couples, Worm Loves Worm puts the affectionate bond between the prospective spouses front and center, gently driving home the point that it is love that is most important in marriage, not who wears the tux and who wears the gown. While it can certainly be read as an argument in favor of same-sex marriage, I think the story also emphasizes the more general point that the emotions involved in this big day, and the commitment the two participants are making to one another, are far more important than the outward trapping of ritual and practice. This is just as relevant for heterosexual couples, I would think. I'm not sure I absolutely loved the book, as some of my acquaintance have - I wasn't as impressed with the artwork here, as I was with Mike Curato's work for the Little Elliot books - but it does have charm. show less

I enjoy how this book explored sexual identity and sexuality through the perspective of animals we typically don't associate with any gender norms. The story follows two worms that fall in love and decide to get married. On wedding day comes the dilemma, who is the bride and who is the groom? Instead of each worm picking a single role they both assumed the role of wife and groom. This simple act showed that gender norms are nothing but societal rules that really don't control how a person show more may feel or identify. show less

Worm Loves Worm is a simple, cute book about two worms who want to get married. Worm and Worm want to marry because they love each other, and when their friends try to make things more complicated than they should be by introducing traditional wedding ideals like the need for a bride and a groom, they decide that the way things have always been done is not always the right way.