The other day at the pediatrician's office, we were admiring Eric Carle's Animals Animals. It's a really nice collection of short, fun poems you can pull out once in awhile. So I grabbed an Eric Carle book that was recommended by Sari, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
This a great book to have around when your learning numbers and beginning to count. It's also a good one for talking about how caterpillars turn into butterflies. That's what happens to our little hero after he eats and eats and eats, becoming a big, fat caterpillar.
Caterpillar is done in the very recognizable Eric Carle style of painted, cut paper collage. There are die-cut holes where the caterpillar has been, and not all the pages are the same size.
Eric Carle really seems to know about what kids need to develop, and he makes wonderful little books that fill a lot of those needs. I'm thinking of Brown Bear, Brown Bear and others. It seems no matter what concept your child is working on, there's a good chance there's an Eric Carle book you can go to for help.
Did you know that Eric Carle has a museum of picture book art? It's in Amherst, MA. Now there's a trip I'd like to take someday. Here's the website:
http://www.picturebookart.org/Home
Anybody been there? What did you think?
2 comments:
Sorry I'm a bit behind here... this one was one of my favorites as a child, and I'm enjoying sharing it with my son.
My parents bought him the book when he was wee one, and also the stuffed caterpillar to go along with it!
The caterpillar is very well done- you can tell with one glance that its the very hungry caterpillar... and each of the little foods that he eats (lollipop, watermelon) provide a different interaction for your child.
It was definately one of his favorite toys as an infant.
Kati and I grew up with this book (I just checked, it was published in 1969) and I still get a warm familiarity when I page through the pictures. Kind of cool that such a seemingly simple book can elicit such a lasting response. Can't wait to get Maya going on this one!
Maya's mom
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