School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Ned is a good-natured worm that loves apple pie and the color red. For him, living in an apple is ideal, until the inevitable happens and his home begins to decompose. When the walls turn mushy, apple juice rains every day, and the bathtub begins to float, Ned knows it's time to search for a new abode. He tries out several different fruits: a pear is too wobbly, a lemon is too sour for his friends' tastes, and a pile of blueberries doesn't hold together. While perched in a bowl of cherries and busy designing a house, a bird lifts Ned-cherry and all-into the sky. Grasping an umbrella, he gentle glides down until he lands in a tree where he finds the perfect new home, an apple still on the branch. The cartoon illustrations are filled with warm colors and comic touches. Endpapers depict the life cycle of the apple from seed to fruit and back to seed. This reassuring tale will be appreciated by the read-aloud crowd while also supplying a subtle lesson in ecology.-Laura Butler, Mount Laurel Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Ned is a green worm who loves his apple homeuntil it starts to rot When the apple-juice rain finally floats his bathtub, he starts to search for another suitable fruit to call home. But a pear is too wobbly, a watermelon is too big and blueberries just roll away. His friends don't like the taste of his lemon tarts and can't find Ned in his kiwi home. Ned has plans for a cherry house, but those are abandoned after a bird carries off a cherrywith Ned on top! He escapes just in time and floats down to a tree full of the perfect housing materialapples, of course. Tseng's debut picture book is full of tongue-in-cheek humor. His watercolors have just the right touch of whimsyfull of humor and expression yet at the same time simple enough for the youngest listeners. Ned is a worm that is sure to be welcomed into children's homes, no matter what kind of material they might be made of. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
