I've read this book to my 16 month old son since he was weeks old. It was a gift from my sister. It's been wonderful to watch him fall in love with it. I posted this pic of him handing me the book and asking me to "reat! reat!" in my Daily Photo album back when he was 11 months old. After we had read it for the third or fourth time this morning, he hugged it. My baby hugged a book. It made my heart smile.
It occurred to me how educational The Very Hungry Caterpillar is after had I read through it the first time. It covers a little of everything, science (it follows the morph cycle of caterpillar into butterfly), health and nutrition (it covers healthy food choices, the importance of food for growth and the consequences of overeating), math and sequencing, colors, basic vocabulary--this book is packed with lots of little lessons and has such an exciting ending for little ones. When the caterpillar turns into a butterfly at the end, Zack insists on holding the book and flapping it closed and open to make the butterfly flutter.
And the artwork. Eric Carle's illustrations (in this book and all the others) could not be any more perfect for children...and adults. I resist the urge to frame his pieces and hang them in Zack's play area because if I do, it will become Eric Carle land--which wouldn't be a bad thing, but I want to keep Zack's exposure to art eclectic (but that's another post). I have this book in Spanish too, because it's also a wonderful primer for early Spanish vocabulary building.
This is one of those old classics that I'm positive my great great grandchildren will still be reading. Nothing like the classics.
We love this book around here. It is also a good one for learning a foreign language. We've learned how to say a lot of different food names in Hebrew.
Posted by: Miriam | June 2009 at 11:45 AM
There a museum: The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art...I've been itching to go there, but it's in Amherst, MA. The only reason to go there is you happen to be in the area at Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst or one of the other gazillion colleges in the area. Maybe one day...
http://www.picturebookart.org/
This posting makes me so happy. He hugged a book. I know that feeling.
Posted by: Adriane | June 2009 at 12:41 PM
I hugged a book once too. I can't recall which one it was. I think it was Tayari Jones' The Untelling or The Secret Life of Bees...or The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan.
Posted by: Quel | June 2009 at 12:49 PM
I love Eric Carle. I read that book to my special ed students and they love it. They love when I use the interactive pieces when reading the book. I also enjoy his other books as well, especially the very quiet cricket because it makes noise at the end.
Posted by: MochaTrina | June 2009 at 10:25 PM
@Miriam: co-sign, my son's Spanish teacher, Ms. Miriam coincidentally, used this as one of the books to teach food names in Spanish.
Posted by: summer | June 2009 at 05:08 PM