We are really cooking with steam now, as my 12th rhyming book for children is officially published. When I created the idea for Willis the worm in "The Worm Who Has a Perm", my intentions were very simple. I just wanted to create a fun little children's book that basically told the story about how kids that are unique are special in their own way. I really had no point of reference with Willis other than he was a cool little guy who seemed to march to the beat to his own drummer. I have seen in my years too many kids get bullied for being different, so this little worm with a perm was going to do his best to make kids smile.
Now unlike those little cute animals in my kids books "The Chick Who Could Not Kick" and "The Whale That Broke the Scale", Willis the worm really didn't see anything wrong with the way he wore his hair. In fact, Willis the worm would encourage others to talk about his hair because he saw how it made people smile. See this little guy was not concerned about anything buy making others happy, and if it came at the expense of him being made fun of, he didn't really let any of that bother him. My intention with this children's picture book was to let kids see that their differences make them unique in a good way, not a bad way. If a child would embrace their skin color, their curly hair, or their unique height, then no amount of ridicule could ever affect them.
With this classic kids book, I knew that grade school kids would relate to bullying, and toddlers would simply think Willis was cool with his colorful perm and his fun-loving attitude. This worm had his share of being bullied in school because the way he looked, but Willis never let it bother him for one second. In fact, when the bully's did not get the reaction they wanted, they thought something was wrong with this little worm. The moral of this story is that when a child is made fun of for the way they look, not letting bully's affect them will cause the bully to go find someone else to pick on. If a child can relate to how Willis ignored ridicule from others in this kid's book, they may be able to express their own individuality more easily!