Shakutorimushi no Hanashi

A quick thinking inchworm about to be eaten by a bird, makes himself useful, instead, by measuring the bird`s tail. But the bird thinks this is so wonderful, he takes the little inchworm on his back, to his other bird friends. "Oh, no!" I said, as I read this aloud. But my enthusiastic seven-year old, who read it through earlier, unbeknownst to me, said, "Don`t worry, Mom, he just disappears himself." In the end, after being only temporarily confounded by a nightingale who demands that the inchworm measure his song or be eaten, he does what my son says he did, for a happy ending. Several interesting views of various birds, in this marvellously, as usual, illustrated Lionni story.