Darwin's Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular - Polly Owen

Charles Darwin is widely known for his Origin of Species book, yet Darwin had another great love, and that was for worms.

Learn the funny and fascinating story of how Darwin came to discover that the humble earthworm is the most important species on our planet.

Darwin suspected worms were special but his scientist friends laughed at him. In a quest to find out the worms’ special talent, Darwin played the bassoon to the worms to see if they could hear, laid out a picnic treasure hunt for them to see how well they could smell, among many other bizarre but entirely true experiments. But so far Darwin didn’t find anything extra special about worms. Until, one day he realised that worms do have a superpower. They POO! Without their life-sustaining, nutrient-rich poo, there would be no plants and no animals on earth. 

Darwin’s 40 years studying worms is still essential to our understanding of worms today, and ever since, scientists have taken him VERY seriously, and never again laughed at his love of worms. 

The story of Darwin and the worms not only centres around the perennially brilliant subject of poo, but it also teaches kids about a key historic figure, the food cycle and deductive scientific thinking, with nonfiction information on each page to help educate alongside the story.