The Very Hungry Caterpillar

by Eric Carle

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

You can’t go wrong with gifting Eric Carle’s iconic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This colorful book is not just for babies! Both children and adults will enjoy joining the caterpillar in his search for food.

THE all-time classic picture book, from generation to generation, sold somewhere in the world every 30 seconds! Have you shared it with a child or grandchild in your life?

Carle's classic tale of a voracious caterpillar who eats his way through the days of the week and then changes into a eautiful butterfly has been reissued in a sumptuous twenty-fifth anniversary edition with a shiny, silver-coated cover and wonderfully thick, durably pages.
—The Horn Book

"The very hungry caterpillar literally eats his way through the pages of the book—and right into your child's heart..."
—Mother's Manual

"Gorgeously illustrated, brilliantly innovative..."
—The New York Times Book Review

 

Watch a Video

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399208539
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	10/15/1981
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	5,173
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD460L (what's this?)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has been translated into 70 languages and sold over 55 million copies. Carle illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 170 million copies of his books have sold around the world. In 2003, Carle received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (now called the Children’s Literature Legacy Award) for lifetime achievement in children's literature. In 2002, Eric and his wife, Barbara, cofounded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (www.carlemuseum.org) in Amherst, Massachusetts, a 40,000-square-foot space dedicated to the celebration of picture books and picture book illustrations from around the world, underscoring the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of picture books and their art form. Eric Carle passed away in May 2021 at the age of 91. His work remains an important influence on artists and illustrators at work today. www.eric-carle.com

Hometown:

Northampton, Massachusetts and the Berkshires

Date of Birth:

June 25, 1929

Place of Birth:

Syracuse, New York

Education:

Akademie der bildenden Künste, Stuttgart, 1946-50

Website:

http://www.eric-carle.com/

Read an Excerpt

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

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By Eric Carle

Philomel Books

Copyright ©1986 Eric Carle All right reserved.
ISBN: 0399213015

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Chapter One

In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.

One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and-pop!-out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar.

He started to look for some food.

On Monday he ate through one apple. But he was still hungry.

He started to look for some food.

On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry.

He started to look for some food.

On Wednesday he ate through three plums, but he was still hungry.

He started to look for some food.

On Thursday he ate through four strawberries, but he was still hungry.

On Friday he ate through five oranges, but he was still hungry.

On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.

That night he had a stomachache!

The next day was Sunday again. The caterpillar ate through one nice green leaf, and after that he felt much better.

Now he wasn't hungry any more-and he wasn't a little caterpillar any more. He was a big, fat caterpillar.

He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself. He stayed inside for more than two weeks. Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushedhis way out and ...

he was a beautiful butterfly!

Continues...

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Excerpted from The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Copyright ©1986 by Eric Carle. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

A caterpillar hatches out of his egg and is very hungry. On his first day, he eats through one piece of food; on his second, two, and so on. Little holes cut in the pages allow toddlers to wiggle their fingers through the food, just like the caterpillar. Vivid and colorful illustrations and ingenious layered pages help preschoolers learn the days of the week, how to count, and how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. This picture book is considered a must for every toddler's library.

Barnes & Noble Staff

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar comes the first-ever pop-up edition of this book. When the familiar, tiny caterpillar pops out of his egg, a dial lets readers help him chug across Carle's earthy color palette. Next, the caterpillar eats his way through a week's worth of pop-up fruit, as well as a full-page display of sweet and savory treats, (resulting in a stomach-ache), before his eventual transition into a butterfly. The pop-ups, particularly a half-cylinder tree trunk that sprouts from the center of the spread and a large accordionlike cocoon, are well executed and engaging. While the prominent use of white space lends a sparser feel than in the picture book, the shimmering wings of the pop-up butterfly dazzle on the final spread. Ages 3-up. (Mar.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

. . . there are moments of brilliance . . . this edition has much to offer . . .

Horn Book

This audiobook includes two versions of the late Eric Carle’s classic story, both equally delightful in different ways. The first version is brought joyfully to life by narrator Kevin R. Free with vivid sound effects and music. Kids will laugh out loud as the hungry young caterpillar audibly chomps, crunches, and crinkles its way through all kinds of food until it is full. The second version is a special read-along track of Carle narrating slowly and simply in a gruff, friendly voice with a slight German accent. Both productions are a great way to encounter Carle's famous caterpillar, and listeners will definitely want to view the iconic illustrations as they hear the story. S.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2021 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2021 - AudioFile

This audiobook includes two versions of the late Eric Carle’s classic story, both equally delightful in different ways. The first version is brought joyfully to life by narrator Kevin R. Free with vivid sound effects and music. Kids will laugh out loud as the hungry young caterpillar audibly chomps, crunches, and crinkles its way through all kinds of food until it is full. The second version is a special read-along track of Carle narrating slowly and simply in a gruff, friendly voice with a slight German accent. Both productions are a great way to encounter Carle's famous caterpillar, and listeners will definitely want to view the iconic illustrations as they hear the story. S.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2021 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2021 - AudioFile