The New Kid --by Bob Dolman

How To Eat Fried Worms is a little movie that we filmed last summer, and now it's out in the great big world, like a kid in a big noisy schoolyard, and kids are watching it everywhere. It's the last movie treat of the summer, before returning to...school.

And it's about going to school. It's about starting at a new school and having to meet new kids and make new friends, which is hard sometimes. It's hard when you don't know anybody and you're trying to fit in. One of the reasons we made this movie was to address this very subject: on his first day at a new school, Billy gets picked on and ends up getting himself into trouble with the school bully. He makes a bet and chooses to honor it and go through with it, and in the end the bully doesn't pick on anybody ever again.

What does your new school year look like? Maybe you've moved to a new town or city, like Billy does in the movie. Or maybe you've moved up to middle school or junior high. Are you excited? Are you wondering what it will be like? It's natural to wonder before you've gotten there, and I'll bet you it's going to be a great adventure, whatever the school is you're going to.

Our movie is a celebration of these amazing days of being a kid and all the fun of making friends and running around laughing. Oh, and dancing--there's certainly some of that in the movie.

I'll tell you something: I wish I was in school again. Do kids still play marbles in the yard at recess?

--Bob Dolman