The Very Hungry Caterpillar
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the Page Grabbers stage.
Why it fits Page Grabbers (for young toddlers who treat books as things to do)
Fingers poke through the food holes as the caterpillar eats his way to butterflyhood. Days of the week, counting, and metamorphosis smuggled inside a tactile game. Half a century old and still irresistible.
What makes it special
The die-cut holes make appetite itself tangible — little fingers follow the caterpillar's path through the pages. Carle's tissue-paper collage turned printmaking into a children's aesthetic that half the world's nurseries now speak. Metamorphosis, days of the week, and moderation, all inside a story short enough for the busiest evening.
From the publisher
One sunny day, a caterpillar pops out of an egg. He is very hungry and begins searching for food. He eats his way through ten very sweet pages and gets a tummy ache before finally finding a good, healthy leaf, which…
About Eric Carle
Eric Carle (1929–2021) turned hand-painted tissue-paper collage into the visual language of early childhood — 170 million books, a signature museum (the first US museum devoted to picture-book art), and a caterpillar known on every continent.
Carle grew up in wartime Germany after his family left New York, drafted as a teenager to dig trenches; he returned to America at 23 with $40, worked as an ad art director, and only found picture books in his late thirties when Bill Martin Jr. spotted a lobster he'd drawn for an advertisement.
Also by this author: The Very Busy Spider · The Grouchy Ladybug · Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me
More from “Books That Do Things”
This book is part of The Best Books for Toddlers: 30 Teacher Picks (Page Grabbers) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.