Product Description

Gary Larson writes: Our story begins with a family of worms who are having dinner one fine evening and Son Worm is unhappy. Unhappy because he's found a hair in his plate of dirt. It's the proverbial straw and it leads him to bemoan his fate as a worm - he's sick and tired of being a worm, tired of being at the bottom of the food chain. His father, upset by his outburst, decides to tell him the tale of a fair human maiden called Harriet. Even with the wonder of satellite television, Harriet loved the Great Outdoors and took many wondrous walks along her favourite woodland trail, adventures filled with mystery and magic. Unfortunately, although Harriet was fair and kindhearted (to a very dangerous degree) she was also, well, dumb. She didn't quite understand what she was seeing, didn't realise that in Nature, what you see is not necessarily what you get ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18951 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 64 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Dirt for breakfast, dirt for lunch and dirt for dinner! Dirt, dirt, dirt! And look--now there's even a hair in my dirt! The final insult--I can't stand it any longer! I hate being a worm!" It isn't easy being an earthworm, and when one little guy gets mad at a hair in his dinner, Father worm decides to tell him a story. What follows is an ecological fable that combines environmental lessons with the kind of off-the-wall humour that could only come from one man--Gary Larson. Fans of The Far Side have been waiting for Larson's latest work since January 1995 when the final Far Sidestrip appeared in newspapers around the world, and they won't be disappointed. Father worm tells the story of Harriet, a beautiful but stupid maiden who frolics through the forest enjoying the beauty of nature, but completely failing to understand it. The young earthworm learns that nature is not a cute and cuddly theme park designed for the entertainment of stupid humans, but a complex, fragile and sometimes violent system where every creature plays a vital role, even the lowly worm.

Larson is never preachy, the text is hilarious, and his illustrations are filled with wonderful sight gags. It may look like a children's book, but there's enough here to keep the most sophisticated adult chuckling for hours. You might learn something too. --Simon Leake

Review
'THERE'S A HAIR IN MY DIRT is hysterical... More entertaining than any science class I remember and the foreword by biologist Edward O. Wilson proves it's legit' - WASHINGTON POST 'Bizarre and black-humoured...those made of slugs, snails and puppy dog's tails will love it!' LIVERPOOL ECHO 'The illustrations are highly finished, and spotting the visual gags on each page is fun.' THE TIMES 'Positioned somewhere between Aesop's fables and Roald Dahl... beautifully illustrated.' BATH CHRONICLE 'Dirt for breakfast, dirt for lunch and dirt for dinner! Dirt, dirt, dirt! And look--now there's even a hair in my dirt! The final insult--I can't stand it any longer! I hate being a worm!" It isn't easy being an earthworm, and when one little guy gets mad at a hair in his dinner, Father worm decides to tell him a story. What follows is an ecological fable that combines environmental lessons with the kind of off-the-wall humour that could only come from one man--Gary Larson. Fans of The Far Side have been waiting for Larson's latest work since January 1995 when the final Far Sidestrip appeared in newspapers around the world, and they won't be disappointed. Father worm tells the story of Harriet, a beautiful but stupid maiden who frolics through the forest enjoying the beauty of nature, but completely failing to understand it. The young earthworm learns that nature is not a cute and cuddly theme park designed for the entertainment of stupid humans, but a complex, fragile and sometimes violent system where every creature plays a vital role, even the lowly worm. Larson is never preachy, the text is hilarious, and his illustrations are filled with wonderful sight gags. It may look like a children's book, but there's enough here to keep the most sophisticated adult chuckling for hours. You might learn something too.' - Simon Leake

About the Author
Gary Larson lives in Oregon with his wife and a Big dog. Although retired from his job as a daily syndicated cartoonist, he is now turning his graphical talent to new forms of technology.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and educational
This book is an entertaining and fun read yet it has a hard-hitting message. It is a poke in the eye for anyone of the view that humankind is uniquely special in the natural world and that all the other forms of life were put here for our pleasure.

An interesting new "package" appealing to Larson fans.
Do not be put off by a first glance assessment of this book, especially its children's picture story book style. Although very different from the ususal Larson cartoon style, this story shows a lot of Larson's expected wit and humour in both the text and the caroons. It tells th story of a family of worms, eating their usual diet of dirt in the comfort of their underground home. When the obnoxious worm teenager with attitude finds a hair in his dirt, he begins to complain and is soon whining about his whole life as a lowly invertebrate. The wise father responds with an enlightening tale of a girl walking thorugh the countryside, and recounts her observations and her ignorance of the natural world. The story gives a message about our places in the natural scheme of the world, without ramming it down our throats. There are many humourous elements to the cartoons and the text had me chuckling regularly, (especially at the interaction between the father and son) but without the degree of laughter I would associate with the Far Side cartoon books.

This is not the regular "Far Side" and is definitely a different venture for Larson but is enjoyable for Larson fans if taken on that basis.