For those of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's, "The Inchworm Song" holds a special place in our hearts. Who can forget the touching scene as Danny Kaye sings the lovely melody to a group of orphans, starring on the big screen as Hans Christian Anderson, the kindly story-teller. Hans shows the children a tiny inchworm, as it inches along the leaves of a marigold flower, and asks the inchworm in song, "Do you ever stop and see how beautiful they are?" The song captured the essence of our society's failings in the 20th century - by trying to create freedom for all, we instead created a soul-less system of governance, that turned people into numbers. I always knew there had to be an inchworm story behind the song, and I searched for it over the years, wanting to read it to my own children. Finally, I realized that the only such story was the one that inhabited my own dreams: if I wanted there to be an Inchworm story for children, I would have to write it myself Enjoy N.H. Shuman