SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Easter Egg Hunt
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Northampton
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 333
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born June 25, 1929, in Syracuse, NY; son of Erich W. and Johanna Carle; married Dorothea Wohlenberg, June, 1954 (divorced, 1964); married Barbara Morrison, June, 1973; children: (first marriage) Cirsten, Rolf; died of kidney failure, May 23, 2021, in Northampton, Massachusetts.
EDUCATION:Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Stuttgart, Germany), degree, 1950.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and illustrator of children’s books. U.S. Information Center, Stuttgart, Germany, poster designer, 1950-52; New York Times, New York, NY, graphic designer, 1952-56; L.W. Frohlich & Co., New York, NY, art director, 1956-63; freelance writer, illustrator, and designer, beginning 1963. Guest instructor, Pratt Institute, 1964. Exhibitions: Work exhibited in galleries, including Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA, 2013.
MIILITARY:U.S. Army, 1952-54.
MEMBER:Authors Guild.
AWARDS:New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Books selection, 1969, for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Outstanding Children’s Books selection, 1974, for My Very First Library; Deutscher Jugendpreis, 1970, for both 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo! and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and 1972, for Do You Want to Be My Friend?; first prize for picture books, International Children’s Book Fair, 1970, for 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo!, 1972, for Do You Want to Be My Friend?, and 1986, for Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me; The Very Hungry Caterpillar named among England’s Best Books, 1971; Children’s Book of the Year awards, Child Study Association, 1977, for Do You Want to Be My Friend?, The Very Busy Spider, and The Very Lonely Firefly; American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) awards, both 1970, both for Pancakes, Pancakes and The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Grand Prix des Treize selection, 1972, for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and 1973, for both Do You Want to Be My Friend? and Have You Seen My Cat?; Nakamori Reader’s Prize, 1975, Silver Medal from City of Milan, Italy, 1989, and 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing selection, New York Public Library, all for The Very Quiet Cricket; AIGA certificate of excellence, 1981, for The Honeybee and the Robber; Gold Medal, Bratslavia Biennial of Illustration, c. 1986, for Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me; Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor Book selection, 1987, for All in a Day; Parenting magazine certificate of excellence, 1989, for Animals, Animals; Heinrich-Wolgast prize, German Education and Science Union, 1996, for My Apron; DeGrumond Collection Medallion, University of Southern Mississippi, 1997; Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book award, 1997, for From Head to Toe; National Parenting Publications Award, 1998, and Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Book award, 1999, both for You Can Make a Collage; Regina Medal, Catholic Library Association, 1999; Outstanding Friend of Children award, Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, 1999; named among Literary Lights for Children, Boston Public Library, 2000; Japan Picture Book Awards translation award, 2000, for Hello, Red Fox; awarded Officer’s Cross, Order of Merit of Federal Republic of Germany, 2001; Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, American Library Association (ALA), 2003. Recipient of numerous other awards, including awards from New York Art Directors Show, New York Type Directors Show, and Society of Illustrators Original Art Show. Recipient of notable book citations from Child Study Association, 1970, for Pancakes, Pancakes, 1971, for Do You Want to Be My Friend?, and ALA, 1985, for The Very Busy Spider; Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1973, for The Very Hungry Caterpillar; and Bank Street College of Education, 1998, for Hello, Red Fox. Recipient of honorary degrees from College of Our Lady the Elms, Chicopee, MA, and Niagara University, Niagara, NY.
WRITINGS
Author’s books have been published in bilingual English/Spanish editions. Author of a blog.
Brown Bear and Friends was adapted for audiobook, read by Gwyneth Paltrow, Macmillan, 2008. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? was adapted for audiobook, read by Gwyneth Paltrow, Macmillan, 2010. Characters from Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar were used as designs for home textiles.
SIDELIGHTS
Eric Carle is credited with creating some of the most intriguing and innovative children’s books of the twentieth century. His distinctive tissue-paper-collage illustrations have made contemporary classics of Bill Martin, Jr.’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? as well as his own The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Carle’s contribution to picture-book art includes incorporating pages that grow larger (as a tiny ladybug meets a succession of ever-larger animals), pages with holes in them (bored by a ravenous caterpillar), and pages containing computer chips that provide sounds (the chirping of a cricket) and visual effects (the flashing lights of a firefly). In addition to garnering countless awards, the author/illustrator has seen his work translated into more than thirty languages with sales in the millions. In 2002 Carle and his wife, Barbara, founded the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. There, exhibitions and programming encourage inquiry, foster an appreciation for the visual arts, and engage, delight, and inspire children and their families.
“Until I was six years old I lived in Syracuse, New York, where I went to kindergarten,” Carle once told SATA. “I remember happy days with large sheets of paper, bright colors, and wide brushes!” Childhood influences would become less benign after first grade when the Carle family moved to his father’s original home in Stuttgart, Germany, and found themselves subjects of a Nazi government gearing for war. Strict schooling was balanced by an art teacher who praised the young boy’s drawings, however, and Carle gained several close friends in addition to feeling secure in his large, extended family. When World War II started in 1939, the boy lost his father to the German Army and then to a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp. A patriotic young German like his friends, Carle cheered Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s victories, but when the tide turned and Allied bombing raids became commonplace in Stuttgart, he was sent by his parents to live outside the city.
Although it was wartime, Carle learned much about art. As he explained in his acceptance speech for the 2003 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, “In high school my art teacher, Herr Krauss … secretly introduced me, an unsophisticated boy of about twelve, to the beauty of abstract, modern, and expressionistic art. This was actually a very risky thing to do during the Nazi years, as Hitler had declared these kinds of art to be degenerat. It was verboten—forbidden—to be practiced by artists and forbidden to be shown. Herr Krauss was a dedicated and courageous teacher. I will always remember him as a shining example of what an educator can be.”
Following the war, Germany was slow to recover, although by 1947 Carle’s father was once again at home with the family. After studying art at Stuttgart’s fine arts academy, Carle decided to return to the United States, where he was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed back in Stuttgart. On this sojourn in Germany he met his first wife, with whom he would return to the United States and have two children before separating. Meanwhile, Carle worked as a designer and art director until 1963, when he quit his full-time company job to go freelance.
Carle got his start in children’s books when he was asked to do illustrations for a book by Bill Martin, Jr. “I found Bill’s approach to the world of the preschool and first grade child very stimulating; it reawakened in me struggles of my own childhood,” he later commented to Delores R. Klingberg in Language Arts. “I didn’t realize it clearly then, but my life was beginning to move onto its true course.” “The long, dark time of growing up in wartime Germany, the cruelly enforced discipline of my school years there, the dutifully performed work at my jobs in advertising—all these were finally losing their rigid grip on me,” he added. “The child inside me—who had been so suddenly and sharply uprooted and repressed—was beginning to come joyfully back to life.”
Published by Ohio-based World Publishing in the late 1960s, Carle’s 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo and The Very Hungry Caterpillar contain bold collage pictures and focus children’s attention on animals. 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo follows several creatures on their train trip to live in a zoo, with a tiny mouse observing each passing rail car. The book is full of “superb paintings of animals, bold, lively, handsome, spreading over big double-spread pages,” Adele McRae wrote in the Christian Science Monitor, the critic adding: “This is a book to grow with its owner.”
Carle’s award-winning concept book The Very Hungry Caterpillar was published in 1969 and describes the development of the titular insect from egg to butterfly in a sequential story that helps young readers learn the days of the week and also count from one to ten. Not only does the book contain brightly colored shapes designed to appeal to young children, it also has holes in the pages that match the path of the caterpillar. As Carle explained in Books for Your Children, the holes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar “are a bridge from toy to book, from plaything, from the touching to understanding. … In the very young child the thought travels mightily fast from fingertips to brain. This book has many layers. There is fun, nonsense, colour, surprise. There is learning, but if the child ignores the learning part, let him, it’s OK. Someday he’ll hit upon it by himself. That is the way we learn.” Carle’s approach in The Very Hungry Caterpillar proved so popular that the book has remained constantly in print for decades, selling millions of copies around the world in translations published in over thirty languages.
The Rooster Who Set out to See the World —also published as Rooster’s Off to See the World —is another “brilliantly colored picture story that does double duty as a counting book,” Lillian N. Gerhardt noted in Library Journal. Carle’s story here follows a rooster that decides to see as much as he can see and as he travels he adds friends in twos, threes, fours, and fives. “The sums are presented pictorially in the corners of the page,” Marcus Crouch noted in Junior Bookshelf, but this does not detract from Carle’s “exquisitely drawn coloured pictures. Mr. Carle is still the best of all artists for the very young.”
Carle introduced another innovation in his 1977 book The Grouchy Ladybug: the pages grow in size as larger and larger animals appear on them. The story follows a bad-tempered ladybug as she challenges different creatures, starting with other insects and ending with the whale whose cutout tail slaps her back to her home leaf. While Carle presents such instructive concepts as time and size, “this book is chiefly a pleasure to read and to look at,” as Caroline Moorhead wrote in the Times Educational Supplement. Moorhead also cited the story’s “cross and good-natured ladybirds … and its deep-toned illustrations of animals.”
In The Very Busy Spider an arachnid spends her day spinning a web, which grows larger with each turn of the page. Although she is interrupted by various farm animals, the spider continues her work until the web is finished and she catches the fly that has been bothering the other animals. Because the web and the fly are raised above the page so that they can be felt, The Very Busy Spider “is obviously of value to the visually handicapped,” Julia Eccleshare suggested in the Times Literary Supplement. In Booklist Denise M. Wilms wrote that Carle’s “good-looking picture book has just the ingredients” to become an “instant classic.”
Other “Very” books have followed from Carle, all illustrated with his signature collage art. In The Very Quiet Cricket a cricket wants to be able to rub his wings together and make a sound to return the greetings of other insects; finally, after much labor, he gets his wish. The cricket’s sound is reproduced via a battery-aided computer chip on the final page of the book. “Carle has created yet another celebration of nature,” declared Starr LaTronica in a School Library Journal review of The Very Quiet Cricket. “Typical of Carle’s style,” the critic added, “the language is simple, with rhythm, repetition, and alliteration to delight young listeners” and the book’s “painted collage illustrations are lavish and expressive.”
The Very Lonely Firefly presents another lovable insect in search of love: a firefly that goes out into the night in search of others like itself. In its quest for illuminated buddies, it mistakes headlights, fireworks, and even a flashlight for other fireflies before it finally finds its own kind, which Carle symbolizes through battery-powered twinkling lights. Roger Sutton, writing in the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, noted of The Very Lonely Firefly that “toddlers will appreciate the predictability and rhythm of the text and the bold shapes of the firefly and other figures set against the streaky blue-black sky,” while Christina Dorr concluded in School Library Journal that this installment in Carle’s “Very” series “is a compelling accomplishment.” Carr’s many young fans were rewarded with a fifth “Very” book when The Very Clumsy Click Beetle introduced a peculiar insect that must learn to jump in the air in order to move once it has fallen on its back. Julie Corsaro called this book a “winning addition to Carle’s oeuvre” in her Booklist review.
Carle has produced another series of books that deal with numbers, letters of the alphabet, tools, and a plethora of other activities and subjects for the very young. The “My Very First Book” series is designed in a “Dutch-door” style, each page split in half with separate illustrations on top and bottom so that the young reader can mix and match images. Again, such images are designed from brilliantly vibrant bits of collage tissue paper. Additionally, Carle has also written his own versions of such familiar children’s works as the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, Aesop’s fables, and Hans Christian Andersen’s stories. Reviewing Eric Carle’s Treasury of Classic Stories for Children, a compilation of these retellings, LaTronica noted in School Library Journal that “Carle’s distinctive style of bright watercolor and collage illustration provides an excellent complement to the lively text.”
Poems for young readers—from haiku to verse by Rudyard Kipling—were adapted by Carle and collected as Eric Carle’s Animals, Animals and Eric Carle’s Dragons, Dragons, the latter expanded as Eric Carle’s Dragons, Dragons, and Other Creatures That Never Were. Susan Schuller, reviewing the first book in School Library Journal, observed that the artist’s “distinctive tissue paper collages bring brilliance and verve to this excellent anthology of poems which conveys the wonder and diversity of the animal world.” Reviewing Eric Carle’s Dragons, Dragons, a contributor to Kirkus Reviews called it a “well-chosen, gorgeously illustrated collection of poetry.”
In Little Cloud Carle describes the “whimsical world of ever-changing shapes in the sky,” according to Kathy Mitchell in School Library Journal. In this story one small cloud delights in changing its shape into a lamb or airplane or shark, then joins with the others to create one large rain cloud. “Children will enjoy the simple text and the colorful illustrations,” Mitchell predicted, while Dickinson wrote in School Librarian that Little Cloud is a “delight in its own artistic right” and designed to “encourage close and interested observation of the wider world.”
More energetic characters appear in From Head to Toe as both animals and multiethnic children demonstrate various body movements. “Keeping both text and graphics to a minimum, Carle proves once again just how effective simplicity can be,” wrote a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, adding that children will “eagerly clap, stomp, kick and wriggle their way through these pages from start to finish.” In Hello, Red Fox “Carle asks readers to engage in optical illusions to view his illustrations for a story that becomes an unforgettable lesson in complementary colors,” noted a Kirkus Reviews critic. After staring at a picture of the fox in green for ten seconds, the reader then shifts focus to a page of pure white where the fox appears in red as an after image. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote that the author/illustrator once again proves the adage that “Less is more” with a “straightforward, repetitive text and minimalist cut-paper art.” In Booklist Linda Perkins commented that, as a “playful starting point for science discussions at home or at school,” Hello, Red Fox will be “sure to intrigue children.”
With Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? Carle asks a variation of the titular question about ten different animals to illustrate the similarity among all living things. To give the other parent equal time, Mister Seahorse focuses on fish fathers who care for their young. The story follows Mister Seahorse as he carries his young through the family’s aquatic neighborhood; each time he sees another caretaking father fish, he stops to praise the finned parent for the good job he is doing. A Publishers Weekly critic noted that, with this book, “Carle adds to his rich cache of endearing animal characters while delivering some intriguing information about several underwater species.” Many fish appear camouflaged in the book’s illustrations and, although Mister Seahorse may not notice them on his travels, readers enjoy searching each page for their hiding places. These hidden fish “introduce a greater variety of sea life and are sure to be a hit with children,” assured Piper L. Nyman in her School Library Journal review of Mister Seahorse.
Originally united at the start of Carle’s career when he illustrated Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, he and author Bill Martin, Jr., have sustained their creative partnership with several projects in the decades since. They echo the theme of their first joint picture book in the companion books Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? , and Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? While Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? focuses on neighborhood animals in North America, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? takes place at a zoo and describes the sounds various zoo animals make. Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? focuses on movement and includes ten endangered species, each set against a painted background that helps young readers visualize the threatened creature in its natural habitat. Critics praised Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? , GraceAnne A. DeCandido recommending it as “a fine read-aloud with a subtle, yet clear, message.”
Apart from his work with Martin, Carle has collaborated with other writers throughout his career. Joining Japanese artist Kazuo Iwamura, he helped to create the bilingual book Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, which introduces English-language readers to a novel format: pages read from left to right in English for the first half of the book, and from right to left in transliterated Japanese for the back half. Each half features animals and a child drawn in the artist’s signature style. All are going to visit a friend and the characters from each side of the book ultimately meet on the two center pages. Andrea Tarr, writing in School Library Journal, called Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! “an irresistible, spirited ode to friendship” and a reviewer for Christian Century described the work as “a bilingual tour de force.” Although Carle and Iwamura have very different styles, their “work merges without jarring contrast” in the book’s center, noted John Peters in Booklist.
Carle focuses on what it means to be an artist in his self-illustrated picture book The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse , which weaves characters from his earlier stories into a tale about an unseen artist who uses unconventional colors in painting animals: for example, red for an alligator, black for a polar bear, and green for a lion. “While the simple, direct text and large type … indicates a young audience, there’s no question that Carle has created this book to make a larger, more autobiographical statement,” noted Lolly Robinson in Horn Book, the critic referencing the author’s experiences as an artist in Nazi Germany. In Booklist Ilene Cooper deemed The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse “an homage to the Expressionist [Blaue Reiter] artist Franz Marc” and predicted that, even without knowledge of Carle’s larger purpose, “children will enjoy … its whimsical joy.” “An homage to Marc becomes testimony to Carle’s gifts too,” asserted a Publishers Weekly critic.
Throughout his career in picture books, Carle has mined not only his imagination but his childhood in Germany for inspiration, producing such works as his award-winning Draw Me a Star, the autobiographical My Apron: A Story from My Childhood, and his only book for older readers, Flora and Tiger: Nineteen Very Short Stories from My Life. In Draw Me a Star he weaves memories of his German grandmother into a narrative dreamscape that parallels the story of Creation to produce what School Library Journal critic Eve Larkin described as an “inspired book in every sense of the word.”
My Apron introduces a young boy whose aunt makes him an apron so that he can help his uncle plaster the chimney, and in the first edition of this novelty book a child-size apron was included for young readers. Flora and Tiger presents “spare autobiographical vignettes that take place from [Carle’s] childhood to the present,” according to Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman. Also reviewing this work, Jane Claes noted in School Library Journal that these “sketches are sometimes moving, sometimes funny, and sometimes uplifting” and are a “super addition to any study of Carle or his work.”
A little boy goes on a journey to be with his best friend who has moved away in Friends. Carolyn Phelan, critic in Booklist, commented: “It’s an odd, dreamlike story for a picture book, yet the artwork is strong and unmistakably Carle’s.” “Children will identify with the longing to be with distant loved ones and will revel in the sheer joy of Carle’s forms,” predicted a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
What’s Your Favorite Animal? finds Carle collaborating with other illustrators, including Chris Raschka, Lane Smith, and Erin Stead. Each illustrator includes a drawing of his or her preferred creature. In an interview with a contributor to the Read Me website, Carle discussed his own affinity for animals, stating: “When I was a small boy, my father would take me on walks across meadows and through woods. He would lift a stone or peel back the bark of a tree and show me the living things that scurried about. He’d tell me about the life cycles of this or that small creature and then he would carefully put the little creature back into its home. I think in my books I honor my father by writing about small living things.” “The collection certainly could inspire children to get busy on a classroom exhibition of their own,” suggested Jane Doonan in School Librarian. A Publishers Weekly reviewer described the book as “a varied and engaging omnibus that offers real insight into the lives and personalities of these artists.” A critic in Kirkus Reviews commented: “This menagerie offers picture-book lovers of all ages a glimpse into each creator’s style, personality and brand of humor.”
In The Nonsense Show, Carle includes a variety of quirky creatures, including a half-tiger half-leopard and sheep that fly out of a steam engine. Amy Nolan, contributor to School Library Journal, predicted: “Children will love seeing everyday images turned on their heads and will delight in … these illustrations.” Writing in Booklist, Lolly Gepson remarked: “The oversize format is perfect for storytimes and silly times all round. Carle hits it out of the nonsense park!” “Despite a few hiccups, it’s kid-pleasing silliness through and through,” suggested a Publishers Weekly reviewer. A critic in Kirkus Reviews described the volume as “a picture book made to incite pleasure and joy.”
My First Busy Book is geared towards toddlers and features numbers, colors, sounds, and shapes to identify. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described the volume as “a satisfying package that will indeed keep toddlers busy—exemplary.” Another book for toddlers by Carle, My First Peek-a-Boo Animals, includes animals covered by flaps that readers can pull out to reveal the full image. A writer in Kirkus Reviews called the volume “a bright and friendly but no more than serviceable board book.”
What’s Your Favorite Color?, like What’s Your Favorite Animal?, includes the work of other illustrators. This volume features drawings by Mike Curato, Uri Shulevitz, and Yuyi Morales, among others. School Library Journal reviewer Chelsea Couillard-Smith described the book as “a creative collection to savor one-on-one or to spark classroom art and writing exercises.” Kay Weisman, a critic in Booklist, called it “an inspiring resource for sparking creativity.” A Kirkus Reviews writer dubbed the volume “a book certain to engross and enthrall.”
Carle revisits his most popular character in Merry Christmas from the Very Hungry Caterpillar. A contributor to Children’s Bookwatch described this volume as “an absolutely fun and sweet little book.”
Whatever their topic, Carle’s books are educational tools that work to interest children through bold, imaginative drawings and whimsical presentations. “I want to show [my readers] that learning is really both fascinating and fun,” he noted on his website. In his acceptance speech for the 2003 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, Carle told listeners, “Not so long ago, a child told me, ‘You are a good picture writer.’ I think that is a very good description of what I do. I like being a picture writer. Someone else has said that my books are ‘literature for the not-yet and just-about-to-be reader.’ I like that description, too.” As Donnarae MacCann and Olga Richard claimed in the Wilson Library Bulletin, “Carle is like a half dozen creative people rolled into one.” Citing the author/illustrator’s skill in writing for pre-schoolers as well as his “innovativeness and artistic discipline” and his ability to transform a book into a toy, the critics suggested that “a child reared on such books will blossom into a confirmed bibliophile.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children about Their Art, Philomel Books (New York, NY), 2007.
Children’s Literature Review, Volume 10, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1986.
Martin, Bill, Jr., Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, Holt (New York, NY), 2003.
Norby, Shirley, and Gregory Ryan, editors, Famous Children’s Authors, Denison (Minneapolis, MN), 1988.
Pendergast, Sara, and Tom Pendergast, editors, St. James Guide to Children’s Writers, 5th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.
Silvey, Anita, editor, Children’s Books and Their Creators, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1995.
Something about the Author Autobiography Series, Volume 6, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1988.
PERIODICALS
Art Business News, January, 2003, “Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art,” p. 64.
Booklist, June 1, 1985, Denise M. Wilms, review of The Very Busy Spider, p. 1398; September 15, 1996, Ilene Cooper, review of The Art of Eric Carle, p. 253; April 15, 1997, Ilene Cooper, review of From Head to Toe, p. 1431; December 15, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Flora and Tiger, p. 692; April, 1998, Linda Perkins, review of Hello, Red Fox, p. 1329; October 1, 1999, Julie Corsaro, review of The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, p. 360; January 1, 2000, Tim Arnold, review of Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?, p. 930; September 1, 2000, Gillian Engberg, review of Dream Snow, p. 130; January 1, 2001, Isabel Schon, review of the Spanish translation of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, p. 973; January 1, 2003, John Peters, review of Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, p. 894; July, 2003, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, p. 1897; April 1, 2004, Julie Cummins, review of Mister Seahorse, p. 1365; June 1, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Rabbit and the Turtle: Aesop’s Fables, p. 91; October 15, 2011, Ilene Cooper, review of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, p. 43; September 1, 2013, Carolyn Phelan, review of Friends, p. 124; December 1, 2013, Carolyn Phelan, review of What’s Your Favorite Animal?, p. 46; July 1, 2015, Lolly Gepson, review of The Nonsense Show, p. 64; March 15, 2017, Kay Weisman, review of What’s Your Favorite Color?, p. 41.
Books for Keeps, May, 1985, Eric Carle, “Authorgraph No. 2: Eric Carle,” pp. 14-15; May, 1994, Trevor Dickinson, review of Today Is Monday, p. 33; July, 1995, review of Draw Me a Star, p. 6; November, 1997, review of The Very Quiet Cricket, pp. 5-6.
Books for Your Children, spring, 1978, Eric Carle, “From Hungry Caterpillars to Bad Tempered Ladybirds,” p. 7.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, October, 1989, Betsy Hearne, review of Eric Carle’s Animals, Animals, p. 47; July-August, 1995 Roger Sutton, review of The Very Lonely Firefly, pp. 379-380.
Children’s Book Review, February, 1971, John A. Cunliffe, review of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, p. 14.
Children’s Bookwatch, December, 2017, review of Merry Christmas from the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Christian Century, December 13, 2003, review of Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, p. 25.
Christian Science Monitor, May 1, 1969, Adele McRae, “Crayoned Morality Plays,” p. B2.
Early Years, April, 1982, “Eric Carle’s Children’s Books Are to Touch,” p. 23.
Horn Book, March-April, 1997, Ethel Heins, review of The Art of Eric Carle, pp. 215-216; May-June, 2003, Jennifer M. Brabander, review of Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, p. 326; July-August, 2003, Eric Carle, “Wilder Medal Acceptance,” pp. 421-425; July-August, 2009, Betty Carter, review of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Pop-Up Book, p. 406; January-February, 2012, Lolly Robinson, review of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, p. 67; November-December, 2017, Roger Sutton, review of What’s Your Favorite Color?, p. 139.
Junior Bookshelf, October, 1972, Marcus Crouch, review of The Rooster Who Set out to See the World, pp. 301-302.
Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 1991, review of Eric Carle’s Dragons, Dragons, p. 940; February 1, 1998, review of Hello, Red Fox, p. 194; August 1, 2002, review of “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the Sloth, p. 1123; March 15, 2003, review of Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, p. 460; April 15, 2004, review of Mister Seahorse, p. 391; January 1, 2005, review of Ten Little Rubber Ducks, p. 49; May 1, 2008, review of The Rabbit and the Turtle; September 15, 2011, review of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse; September 15, 2013, review of Friends; December 1, 2013, review of What’s Your Favorite Animal?; August 15, 2015, review of The Nonsense Show; January 1, 2016, review of My First Busy Book; May 1, 2017, review of What’s Your Favorite Color?; July 1, 2017, review of My First Peek-a-Boo Animals.
Language Arts, April, 1977, Delores R. Klingberg, “Eric Carle,” p. 447.
Library Journal, June 15, 1973, Lillian N. Gerhardt, review of The Rooster Who Set out to See the World, pp. 1992-1993.
Publishers Weekly, September 29, 1989, Molly McQuade, “Ballyhooing Birthdays: Four Children’s Classics and How They Grew,” pp. 28-29; February 17, 1997, review of From Head to Toe, p. 219; January 26, 1998, review of Hello, Red Fox, p. 91; September 25, 2000, Elizabeth Devereaux, review of Dream Snow, p. 67; July 1, 2002, review of “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the Sloth, p. 77; July 7, 2003, Sally Lodge, “A Bear of a Project for Martin and Carle,” pp. 20-21; November 10, 2003, review of Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, p. 35; March 15, 2004, review of Mister Seahorse, p. 74; January 24, 2005, review of Ten Little Rubber Ducks, p. 242; August 8, 2011, review of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, p. 44; September 30, 2013, review of Friends, p. 65; October 21, 2013, review of What’s Your Favorite Animal?, p. 51; 2014, review of What’s Your Favorite Animal?, p. 30; July 20, 2015, review of The Nonsense Show, p. 188.
School Arts, April, 2003, Jane Sutley, “Art History à la Eric Carle,” pp. 32-33.
School Librarian, November, 1997, Trevor Dickinson, review of Little Cloud, p. 184; summer, 2014, Jane Donna, review of What’s Your Favorite Animal?, p. 89.
School Library Journal, April, 1988, Starr LaTronica, review of Eric Carle’s Treasury of Classic Stories for Children, p. 94; November, 1989, Susan Schuller, review of Eric Carle’s Animals, Animals, p. 101; December, 1990, Star LaTronica, review of The Very Quiet Cricket, p. 72; October, 1992, Eve Larkin, review of Draw Me a Star, p. 80; August, 1995, Christina Dorr, review of The Very Lonely Firefly, pp. 120-121; May, 1996, Kathy Mitchell, review of Little Cloud, p. 85; February, 1998, Jane Claes, review of Flora and Tiger, p. 113; October, 2000, review of Dream Snow, p. 57; September, 2002, Mary Elam, review of “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the Sloth, p. 181; January, 2003, Luann Toth, “A Museum Grows in Amherst,” p. 17; March, 2003, Andrea Tarr, review of Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, p. 216; May, 2004, Piper L. Nyman, review of Mister Seahorse, p. 102; January, 2005, Linda Staskus, review of Ten Little Rubber Ducks, p. 88; October, 2011, Diane Antezzo, review of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, p. 102; July, 2015, review of What’s Your Favorite Animal?, p. 54; August, 2015, Amy Nolan, review of The Nonsense Show, p. 66; February, 2016, Jennifer Verbrugge, review of The Tiny Seed, p. 50; April, 2017, Chelsea Couillard-Smith, review of What’s Your Favorite Color?, p. 123.
Times Educational Supplement, February 3, 1978, Caroline Moorhead, “Animal/Animal, Animal/Human,” p. 45.
Times Literary Supplement, March 29, 1985, Julia Eccleshare, “Following the Thread,” p. 351.
U.S. News and World Report, November 18, 2002, Holly J. Morris, “The Very Busy Artist,” p. 14.
Washington Post Book World, May 9, 1971, Polly Goodwin, review of Do You Want to Be My Friend?, section II, p. 4.
Wilson Library Bulletin, January, 1989, Donnarae MacCann and Olga Richard, “Picture Books for Children,” pp. 90-91.
ONLINE
Chicago Tribune Online, http://www.chicagotribune.com/ (June 8, 2018), Nara Schoenberg, author interview.
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art website, http://www.carlemuseum.org/ (February 15, 2014).
Eric Carle website, http://www.eric-carle.com (June 8, 2018).
Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com/ (February 22, 2018), author interview.
Horn Book Online, https://www.hbook.com/ (September 8, 2015), Roger Sutton, author interview.
Huffington Post, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (June 8, 2018), Katherine Brooks, author interview.
Read Me, http://www.readmeblogsite.net/ (March 2, 2015), author interview.
Story Toys, https://storytoys.com/ (June 24, 2016), author interview.
Eric Carle: Picture Writer (video), Searchlight Films, 1993.
c
Eric Carle is the author and illustrator of more than 70 books for very young children including his most well-known title
The Very Hungry Caterpillar!
The Picture Writer
The secret of Eric Carle’s books’ appeal lies in his intuitive understanding of and respect for children, who sense in him instinctively someone who shares their most cherished thoughts and emotions. A movie, made in 2011, about Eric and his picture books, called “Eric Carle: Picture Writer” is a wonderful introduction to his life and work
In the early 1980’s, Bobbie and I visited several picture book museums in Japan, and the early seed of inspiration was planted. Our visit to this beautiful country where picture book art was exhibited and honored as art, helped us on our course toward the opening of The Carle.
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art opened in Amherst, MA.
In 2002, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art opened in Amherst, MA. My wife Bobbie, loved art and children – she worked in the field of special education. She was a tremendous guiding force as we embarked on this project, created a Board of Directors and hired staff in the early years of the Museum’s life.
It has been said that picture books are an introduction to literature for the very young reader. Bobbie and I wanted to build a museum that would be for the first-time museum visitor: an introduction to the experience of looking at art. We were interested in developing enthusiasts for the art of picture books and in encouraging the habit of museum going in our younger visitors. And we wanted to show the highest examples of that art to demonstrate the beauty, the seriousness, and the fun of it. We wanted to create a museum that exhibits the work of national and international picture book artists. And while we didn’t know this would happen, we were thrilled that the Museum became a home for so many illustrators. A place for picture book artists to exhibit their work and know that it would be cared for and loved by the Museum staff and community. In 2015, sadly, Bobbie passed away. But our shared dream of a place where picture book art is enjoyed and honored continues. Bobbie’s Meadow, an outdoor space at the Museum is a beautiful wildflower meadow and outdoor space created in memory of my dearest Bobbie.
2.museumexterior-museum-page
Photo Credit: Seth Kaye Photography
The Museum continues to grow
Over the years, the Museum has and will continue to fulfill Bobbie and my dreams and aspirations. The 40,000 sq. ft. building itself is a beautiful, spacious and light-filled space with a large main hall, three galleries, a café, an art studio, an auditorium and a museum shop. Since its opening on November 22, 2002, the Museum has welcomed more than 750,000 visitors, including more than 50,000 school children, mounted more than 80 exhibitions, and held more than 100 workshops for educators. I hope the Museum will continue to be a place of learning, for visitors and educators, art teachers and students; a cultural and educational center and academic resource. I hope you will visit soon!
For more information about the Eric Carle Museum please visit: https://www.carlemuseum.org/
Book Awards
1,2,3 to the Zoo!
Deutscher Jugendpreis, 1970
First Prize for Picture Books, International Children’s Book Fair, Bologna, Italy, 1970
10 Little Rubber Ducks
Starred review from School Library Journal 2005
Child magazine’s Best Children’s Book Awards 2005
All in A Day (collaboration)
Jane Addams Children’s Book Honorary Award, 1987
Animals Animals
Parenting Magazine’s Reading Magic Awards Certificate of Excellence, 1989
John Burroughs Nature Book List For Young Readers, The John Burroughs Association, 1989
Redbook Magazine’s Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year, 1989
Parents Best Kid’s Books of 1989
American Library Association (ALA) Booklist Children’s Editor’s Choices, 1989.
The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse
Amazon Best Books of the Month: October 2011
Starred review from Publishers Weekly and Booklist
Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? (illustrations)
Starred review from Publishers Weekly
Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (illustrations)
International Reading Association / Children’s Book Council (IRA / CBC) Children’s Choice, 1984
Parents Magazine: Favorite Baby Books of All Time August 2006
Do You Want to Be My Friend?
Honor Book, New York Herald Tribune World Spring Book Festival, 1971
ALA Notable Book, 1971
US Library of Congress Children’s Books of 1971
Deutscher Jugendpreis, 1972
First Prize for Picture Books, International Children’s Book Fair, Bologna, Italy, 1972
Selection Du Grand Prix des Treize, France, 1973
Children’s Books of the Year 1977, Child Study Association of America, 1977
Dream Snow
Kid’s Pick of the List, American Booksellers Association (ABA), 2000
Eric Carle: Picture Writer Video
ALA, The Carnegie Award for Excellence in Video for Children, 1994
Flora and Tiger: 19 Very Short Stories from My Life
Not Just for Children Anymore! 1998 Title, Children’s Book Council
From Head to Toe
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award, 1997
IRA / CBC Children’s Choice
Parenting Best Books of the Year 1997
Certificate of Excellence, Parenting Magazine, 1998
The Grouchy Ladybug
Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, National Council for Social Studies/Children’s Book Council, 1977
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award, 199
Have You Seen My Cat?
Selection Du Grand Prix des Treize, France, 1973
Hello, Red Fox
ABA Pick of the List!, 1998
Bank Street College Best Books, 1998
Japan Picture Book Awards, Picture Book Translation Winner’s Prize, 2000
The Honeybee and the Robber
The American Institute of Graphic Arts Certificate of Excellence, 1981
A House for Hermit Crab
Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children, National Science Teacher’s Association/Children’s Book Council, 1988
The Lamb and the Butterfly
ABA/Children’s Book Council, Children’s Books Mean Business Award, 1995
The Mixed-Up Chameleon
Parents’ Choice Award, 1988
IRA / CBC 100 Favorite Paperbacks 1989
Mister Seahorse
2005 Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book
My Apron
Heinrich-Wolgast Prize 1996- Selected List, German Education and Science Union
My Very First Library
Outstanding Children’s Books of the Year, The New York Times Book Review, 1974
The Nonsense Show
A Time Magazine Top 10 Children’s Book of 2015
Starred reviews from: Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews and Horn Book
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? (illustrations)
2003 Platinum Book Award, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio
One of the Best Books for Children 2003, The Association of Booksellers for Children
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me
Gold Medal, Bratislava International Biennial of Illustration
Young Critics Award Special Mention, International Children’s Book Fair, Bologna, Italy
Parents’ Choice Award in Illustration, 1986
CBC Children’s Choice List for 1987
The Tiny Seed
ABA Pick of the List 1991
The Very Busy Spider
Child Study Association’ s Books of the Year
Best Books for Children, R.R. Bower Co.
ALA Notable Children’s Book
Recommended by the Library of Congress Advisory Committee on the Selection of Children’s
Books for the Blind & Physically Handicapped
ALA Booklist Best Books of the 80’s, 1989
Best Children’s Books in the Netherlands, 2004
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The New York Times Top Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year, 1969
Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis, 1970
American Institute of Graphics Award, 1970
Selection Du Grand Prix des Treize, France, 1972
Brooklyn Museum of Art Books for Children Citation, 1973, 1976, 1977
Nakamori Reader’s Prize, Japan, 1975
On Suggested Reading List by Education Secretary William J. Bennett, 1988
The Association of Booksellers for Children, Children’s Booksellers’ Choices, 1995 (boardbook)
Best 100 Books in the Netherlands, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007
The Very Lonely Firefly
Child Study Association’s Children’s Books for the Year
Parents Magazine’s Best Books for 1995
Kansas State Reading Circle 1996-1997
The Very Quiet Cricket
Silver Medal Recipient, City of Milano, Italy, 1989
Redbook Magazine’s Top Ten Picture Books of the Year, 1990
Parenting Magazine’s California Children’s Book + Video Awards, winner of Picture Book Category, 1990
Buckeye Children’s Book Award, Ohio Council of the International Reading Association, Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts, Ohio Department of Education, Ohio Educational Library Media Association, Ohio Library Association, State Library of Ohio, 1993
ABA Children’s Books Mean Business Title, 1998
Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! (collaboration)
Reading Promotion Association Award, Japan Book Publishing Association and Japan Printers Association 2002
One of the Best Children’s Books 2003, Publishers Weekly
One of the Best Bilingual Books 2003, Nick Jr. Magazine
Parent’s Guide, Children’s Media Award 2003
You Can Make a Collage
National Parenting Publications Honors Award, 1998
Platinum Book Award, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, 1999
About Eric Carle
Ever since I was very young, I have loved making pictures. I knew even as a child that when I grew up I would be an artist.
ERIC CARLE
Eric Carle (1929–2021) was one of the best known illustrators of our time. The creator of more than 70 picture books, he combined winsome stories and exuberant collages that appeal to young readers and adults alike. In 2002, Eric Carle and his late wife, Barbara Carle, founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts.
FOND MEMORIES The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle reveals how his dad reading to him as a young boy helped forge his writing career
Eric didn't have many books growing up - but says the time his dad spent with him helped create a connection that had lasting impact
By Lynn Kernan
Published: 20:18, 28 Oct 2018
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
AUTHOR Eric Carle says time with his dad helped him spread his wings as an author — and write The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
The children’s book has become a huge worldwide hit since being first published nearly 50 years ago.
Eric with a cutout of the iconic bug
4
Eric with a cutout of the iconic bugCredit: Getty - Contributor
Remarkably, books weren’t a big part of Eric’s life as a youngster. He lived in Germany during the Second World War and was forced to dig trenches as a teenager.
Despite this, he has fond memories of times reading with his father Erich — who was taken prisoner during the war.
Eric said: “I didn’t have many books as a child, but I have very fond memories of sitting on my father’s lap while he read the Sunday Funny pages to me.
“I enjoyed Mickey Mouse and Flash Gordon. But it is the closeness with my father, the connection we shared, that made the most lasting impact.”
The 89-year-old spoke to The Scottish Sun as part of our Free Books For Schools campaign, which allows primary schools to collect tokens in return for a bumper pack of Collins Big Cat books worth £550.
And the writer says reading with parents is so important for kids.
Eric attending attend Jumpstart's 'Read for the Record' at The New York Public Library with actress Mary-Louise Parker
4
Eric attending attend Jumpstart's 'Read for the Record' at The New York Public Library with actress Mary-Louise ParkerCredit: Getty Images - Getty
He added: "I feel strongly that by reading with your child, by the simple act of holding them close while you read to them, you let them know that you care for them, have time for them and love them.
“Then sharing a book becomes more than pages with words and pictures.”
The US author started life in New York, but aged six moved to Stuttgart, in Germany, where his mother had grown up.
His turbulent childhood made him homesick for America and when he was in his 20s he headed back over the Atlantic.
And it was back in the US that he discovered his talent for kids’ picture books.
Eric's career as a children's books illustrator started in his late 30s
4
Eric's career as a children's books illustrator started in his late 30s
Eric said: “After attending art school in Germany, I moved back to the United States in 1952 and worked as a graphic designer for The New York Times and later as art director for an advertising agency.
“But my career as a children’s book illustrator did not actually begin until I was in my late 30s. In the mid-1960s Bill Martin Jr saw an ad of a red lobster that I had designed and asked me to illustrate his Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
“What an inspiring book! I was set on fire! It was possible, after all, to do something special that would show a child the joy to be found in books.”
The writer said the experience was life-altering for him — and he has gone on to illustrate more than 70 books.
He added: “This opportunity changed my life. And almost without any planning, I became an author and illustrator of books for children.”
Dolly Parton backs Scottish Sun’s Free Books for Schools campaign and insists putting novels in children’s hands will be her greatest legacy
Eric’s most well-recognised title, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, was published two years later in 1969.
Over the years it has sold more than 46 MILLION copies — which equates to more than one copy per minute since it was released — and was named the second favourite picture book of all time, after Where The Wild Things Are.
Its incredible success took the writer by total surprise — but he thinks it’s the idea of hope in the story, about a caterpillar who eats everything in sight, that keeps kids hooked.
Eric said: “For a long time, I did not understand why my book The Very Hungry Caterpillar was so popular.
“But over time I have come to believe many children can identify with the helpless, small, insignificant caterpillar, and they rejoice when it turns into a beautiful butterfly.
“I think it’s a message of hope. It says, ‘I too can grow up. I too can unfold my wings, my talents and dreams, and fly into the world’.
“This is a universal concern that children have, ‘Will I grow up? Will I be able to function as an adult?’.”
On the back of his success, award-winning Eric has been able to give something back to his fans.
In 2002 he, along with his late wife Barbara, founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts, which celebrates illustrations from round the world and offers educational programmes.
And he’s delighted to have had some part in helping kids who, like him, didn’t have the easiest start in life.
Eric as a young lad
4
Eric as a young lad
He said: “I’ve been interested in making the book more tactile, something for a child to hold and touch in the way they might a toy.
“I often think of my books that have the special features as being like a toy you can read, and a book you can touch.
“This is my attempt to try to bridge the worlds of home and school.
Creating books for very young children, who are transitioning from home to school, has been particularly meaningful because that was a difficult transition for me.”
Eric is currently working on a project that has taken him away from kids’ books — but still using the same bold colours.
MOST READ IN NEWS
Young couple found dead at Fife flat in double death tragedy
DEATH RIDDLE Young couple found dead at Fife flat in double death tragedy
Historic Scots building goes up in flames are fire crews battle inferno
BLAZE HORROR Historic Scots building goes up in flames are fire crews battle inferno
Kids forced to live in 'horrendous' home as tot found with cocaine in system
HORROR NEGLECT Kids forced to live in 'horrendous' home as tot found with cocaine in system
First picture of teenager killed in horror crash outside Scots village
CRASH TRAGEDY First picture of teenager killed in horror crash outside Scots village
He said: “These days I am very much interested in Paul Klee’s diary and his many angels.
“I have created a series of homages of these angels.
“They do not resemble my picture book illustration collage style or Klee’s style.
“They are made of materials I find in my studio, as well as paint and cardboard, aluminium and fabric.”
Despite this side project, Eric will always be grateful for his millions of readers and the family connections his books have created, especially as they remind him of the wonderful memory he has of his dad.
He said: “I find it very moving that there are parents who grew up reading my books, who are now reading them to their own children.
“It is very meaningful to know that my work has been enjoyed by generations of readers.”
Eric Carle fought publishers over this scene in ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’
In a 2015 interview with the Paris Review, the author explains why he feels the scene compromises the whole book.
By Cassandra Stone May 27, 2021
[Author’s Note May 28, 2021: It has come to light that this Eric Carle interview is fictional and was written as a satirical piece for the Paris Review. Avi Naftali pointed out the error on Twitter, as many people believed the satire to be true. It clearly resonated with many for a reason, though we do regret the error.]
The brilliant artist and creator of countless beloved children’s classics, Eric Carle, passed away this week at the age of 91. Tributes have been pouring in on social media from adults and children alike, with many stories focusing on how integral his books have been to their childhoods.
Arguably, his best-known work is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” the tale of a young caterpillar on the cusp of his beautiful metamorphosis into his final stage: butterfly. It’s a gorgeously illustrated book that has been delighting children of all ages since it was first published in 1969. In the story, the caterpillar famously eats his way through the book—gaining the strength he needs for his big transformation.
Before he heads into his cocoon, however, the caterpillar gnaws on a leaf after a week-long feast of anything and everything he could possibly for an entire week. He has apparently come down with a stomachache from the feast.
The book reads, “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.”
In a 2015 interview with the Paris Review, Carle explained why he didn’t like this part of the book—and why he fought his publishers against including it, as it wasn’t in his original manuscript.
“My publisher and I fought bitterly over the stomachache scene in The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” he said. “The caterpillar, you’ll recall, feasts on cake, ice cream, salami, pie, cheese, sausage, and so on. After this banquet I intended for him to proceed immediately to his metamorphosis, but my publisher insisted that he suffer an episode of nausea first—that some punishment follow his supposed overeating. This disgusted me. It ran entirely contrary to the message of the book.”
Carle explained that the publishers were likely concerned about encouraging gluttony, but that he didn’t believe children should be concerned about such things. The way he explains it is really worth reading—his words here have a profound impact. Especially as many pediatric nutritionists and children’s food bloggers have expressed frustration with the shame surrounding that scene in recent years. And even more so because many people likely don’t know that he was against including it from the get-go.
“The caterpillar is, after all, very hungry, as sometimes we all are,” Carle said. “He has recognized an immense appetite within him and has indulged it, and the experience transforms him, betters him. Including the punitive stomachache ruined the effect. It compromised the book.”
During the same interview, he offered his thoughts on childhood obesity.
“I don’t recognize childhood obesity,” he stated. “No one should. I see children doing what they like, which is eating, and doing it without the shame or remorse later drilled into them by Judeo-Christian ethics.”
People of all ages, but especially growing children, have widely varying eating habits. One day, your child can’t get enough to eat—snacking every hour, asking for seconds at meal time, etc. The next day, they’re barely nibbling their favorite foods. Both ways of eating are good! It means they know how to eat intuitively. Kids are born intuitive eaters—they know how to honor their hunger and their fullness innately. When parents (and schools) begin micromanaging what their children eat, when they eat, and how they eat it (i.e. “you can leave after you eat three more bites,” or “no dessert until you finish your chicken and green beans”), their natural responses to their own hunger cues are disrupted. This type of disruption can affect their relationship with food for a lifetime.
Eric Carle recognized the harm in implying shame should be something a living creature feels simply for eating food they need to eat in order to grow—he knew it back in 1969, and he knew it in 2015. While he may not have gotten his way with his publishers at the time, we can take that knowledge and apply it to storytime when we curl up with the hungry caterpillar and our children.
Like Carle says, transformation requires nourishment, after all—and it makes us better in the end.
Column: Daley recalls interview with late children’s book legend Eric Carle
Lauren Daley
Illustrator Eric Carle reads from "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" on Oct. 1, 2007 in New York. The beloved children’s author and illustrator whose classic works gave millions of kids some of their earliest and most cherished literary memories, has died. Carle was 91. Through books like “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” “Do You Want to Be My Friend?” and “From Head to Toe,” Carle introduced universal themes in simple words and bright colors.
Columns share an author's personal perspective and are often based on facts in the newspaper's reporting.
I got a text from my mom last week that made my heart sink: “Eric Carle died.”
All over Twitter, I saw that other people heard the news the same way— their parent or called, their grown children texted.
The iconic children’s book author and illustrator, who has a studio and children’s museum in Massachusetts, died last week at age 91. The lifetime bond his works created between kids and parents speaks volumes about his genius and legacy.
His family announced that the artist, illustrator and writer, “passed away peacefully and surrounded by family members on May 23, 2021 at his summer studio in Northampton, Massachusetts.”
As soon as I heard, I thought of the Christmas we got “The Very Quiet Cricket.” Like all Carle’s books, it was vibrantly colorful, in his signature tissue paper collage illustrations. I was floored that it chirped at the end. I read that book over and over just for the joy of the last page.
We became, like many families as I witnessed on Twitter last week, an Eric Carle family: “The Very Busy Spider,” “Little Cloud,” “A House for Hermit Crab,” “The Grouchy Lady Bug,” and his illustrative debut, with Bill Martin Jr., “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?”
The second thing that struck me, after replaying those childhood moments with his books in my head, was that I had interviewed Carle in 2009, when “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” turned 40.
Get the Inside Massachusetts Politics newsletter in your inbox.
Stay informed about the world of politics
Delivery: Wed
Your Email
Rereading it, I was stuck by so many lines.
This was back before social media, before we shared articles online, so I want to share highlights of that interview here.
The award-winning book creator was 80 at the time. He told me about writing, art, and growing up in Nazi Germany — and that his favorite book he ever wrote was “Do You Want to be My Friend?” because “it’s about friendship.”
Here are highlights:
Daley: You were born in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1929. Your family moved to Germany when you were 6 years old.
Carle: I have painful memories of growing up in Germany during the Second World War, and in a way I feel the colorful illustrations of my books are a kind of antidote to the grays and browns of my childhood.
Daley: What were your favorite books to read as a kid? Did you have many books?
Carle: I didn’t have many books. But I have very fond memories of sitting on my father’s lap while he read the Sunday funny pages to me.
It’s important that we read to our children, but equally important is the act of taking your child onto your lap, holding them close while you read to them, letting them know by this simple act that you care for them, have time for them and love them. Then the book becomes more than pages with words and pictures.
Daley: Do you consider yourself more of an artist who writes, or a writer who creates art?
Carle: I am, first, a visual person. I was tentative at first in my ability as a writer, but over the years I’ve become more confident. My pictures are a very important part of my books. I think of them as little posters.
Daley: How did you come up with your unique collage technique?
EC: I first learned about collage in art school in Germany and later used the technique as a graphic designer and art director for an advertising agency. But I didn’t invent collage. Many children have done collages at home or in their classrooms. In fact, some children have said to me, “Oh, I can do that.” I consider that the highest compliment.
Daley: What’s your process?
Carle: I take hand-painted tissue papers that I paint with acrylics. Then I cut and tear these painted papers and glue them onto illustration board. My painted papers are like my palette.
Daley: How’d you like working in advertising?
Carle My work and my training were very important in my development and I did enjoy it. But when I was asked to illustrate Bill Martin Jr.’s “Brown Bear,” I was set on fire. I was so inspired to be able to make a difference in the lives of young readers. I had found my true course in life… He opened the world of picture books for me.
Daley: What gave you the idea for “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”?
Carle The idea (came) when I was absentmindedly punching holes into a stack of paper. I always try to squeeze as much as possible out of the paper. If possible, I don’t want just a plain sheet of paper. I want to change that flat sheet in some way.
Daley: You said “Caterpillar” is about hope; “Spider” is about work; “Cricket” is about love, and “Firefly” is about belonging. Why did you pick those four themes?
Carle: I didn’t set out to write about those themes. They sort of evolved as the idea for each book took shape.
Daley: I have a copy of “The Very Quiet Cricket” from 1990 that still chirps. Was it your idea to create a multi-sensory book?
Carle: I’ve always been interested in making books more tactile, something for a child to hold (like) a toy. I often think of my books as being toys you can read.
Daley: You wrote on your Web site: “The passage from home to school is the second biggest trauma of childhood; the first is, of course, being born.” Is that one of the reasons you wanted to write for children?
Carle: I’ve always hoped my books would help bridge the worlds of home and school —that was a very difficult transition for me. My books are attempts to bridge those worlds.
Thank you, Eric, for all the bridges.
Interview has been edited and condensed.
Lauren Daley is a freelance writer and columnist. Contact her at ldaley33@gmail.com. Follow her at https://www.facebook.com/daley.writer She tweets @laurendaley1.
Children's book author Eric Carle brought 'colour' into readers' lives, says friend
Social Sharing
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Reddit
LinkedIn
Email
Carle, who wrote and illustrated The Very Hungry Caterpillar and more than 70 books, died this week
CBC Radio · Posted: May 28, 2021 5:54 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 29, 2021
Tony DiTerlizzi, right, co-creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles, is pictured here with his arm around his friend Eric Carle, the legendary children's book author who died this week. (Submitted by Tony DiTerlizzi)
comments
7:03
Beloved children's book author Eric Carle brought 'colour' into readers lives
Readers young and old are celebrating the life and works of U.S. author and illustrator Eric Carle, who died this week at the age of 91.
Carle published The Very Hungry Caterpillar in 1969, winning over parents and kids with his story of a green and red caterpillar, with a touch of blue and brown, and how it turned into a multi-coloured butterfly.
In more than 70 books, Carle used colour to teach stories about life and growth through nature.
"He looked to the colour in the world," writer Tony DiTerlizzi, Carle's friend and colleague, said. "He looked to the vibrancy, the beauty not just in the colours, but in all of the natural beauty that surrounded him."
DiTerlizzi, co-writer of the Spiderwick Chronicles book series, spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off about Carle. Here is part of their conversation.
There is an interview with Eric Carle, who says that one of the reasons why he loved colours so much is that ... he came from Germany after the Second World War and he had, as a teenager, been forced to dig trenches by the Nazis, and everything was just so colourless where he was. Did he ever talk about that?
He would from time to time.
He certainly talked about his love of art school in Germany ... and the encouragement that he received from his instructors and professors. I think he carried that encouragement through and certainly shared it with the librarians and teachers who are educating our children and sharing his books in their classroom. [They] meant a tremendous amount to him and to the books that he created.
Do you remember yourself the first time you read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and what you thought of it?
I do. It's one of those things like Where the Wild Things Are, which [is] just part of my childhood landscape. Like, it was always there.
When my wife and I brought our daughter home from the hospital when she was born ... it was the first book we sat down and read.
Carle reads his classic children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar on the NBC's Today in New York on Oct. 8, 2009. (Richard Drew/The Associated Press)
What do you think the message is in that book?
We all have the ability to change and we all have the ability to evolve into something more beautiful. And also, food is amazing. And that's true with Eric.
Eric loved to eat. We certainly had many a hangout over food here in Amherst, there in Northampton, [Mass.] There's quite a few children's book folks here that came in from the '60s ... and then there's kind of been a new generation who have moved up here due, in huge part, to the museum Eric opened [The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art].
We had a guys lunch that [author and illustrator] Mo Willems had kind of organized where it would be Eric, Norton Juster, Mo and I — Norton being the author of The Phantom Tollbooth, [who] we lost a few months ago.
We would just mostly eat and tell stories. And it was joyous and amazing…. With both of those legends gone, there's certainly an absence now.
What an extraordinary lunch that must have been.
It was a lot of laughter and a lot of, like, "Hey, try this. This is pretty good."
I remember there was an event at the museum, and my wife and I were driving Eric home afterwards. And Norton said, "You know, we should get together soon." And Eric said that would be a very good idea. And Norton goes, "I'll bring the schnecken." And [Eric] goes, "Oh, schnecken. I love schnecken."
And so we're driving him home, it's 10, 15 minutes from the museum, and he's telling us what schnecken is. He's like, "You've never had schnecken?" And [I'd] never had schnecken. So we go to his — he had a place in Northampton — he goes, "Drive a little bit past there," and there was a bakery.
He toddles in and comes back out with a bag and he goes, "All right, come on up. We're going to have schnecken."
[Schnecken is] German for snail, I believe, and so it's like a cinnamon roll that's kind of twisted around like a shape of a snail shell. And we all sat and ate schnecken. And then that became the running joke every time we'd get together. "Oh, look, you brought more schnecken."
He'd earned his legendary status, and yet he always took time to talk to children, to draw on their books, to spend time with families and librarians and teachers and young kid artists like me who had big dreams of one day making my own books for children.
- Tony DiTerlizzi, author
Now that can't be surprising for somebody who has a fictional caterpillar who jumps through an apple, pears, plums, strawberries, chocolate cake, ice cream cone, pickle slices, salami and a lollipop before he turns into a butterfly. And so it makes sense that he would share food with you. What will you miss the most about your friend?
The life of many authors, not just children's book authors or illustrators, it's a solitary one. We're alone in our studios or offices, writing and working. And Eric was a model for myself and for many young up-and-coming children's book creators of how to be generous, how to be classy.
He was always very generous with gifts, with his time. He was a true inspiration. And he didn't have to be.
He'd earned his legendary status, and yet he always took time to talk to children, to draw on their books, to spend time with families and librarians and teachers and young kid artists like me who had big dreams of one day making my own books for children. And that kind of inspiration is something I will always carry with me and try to pay forward and pass along.
Written by Mehek Mazhar with files from CBC News. Interview produced by Katie Geleff. Q&A edited for length and clarity.
Eric Carle: The very busy illustrator
Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. In 2005 he told Sally Williams about growing up hungry under Hitler.
Sally Williams
Thursday 27 May 2021 01:01
Comments
Obit Eric Carle
Obit Eric Carle (AP2009)
IndyEat
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews
Email
I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice
This interview was first published in 2005.
In the 35 years since the children's writer and illustrator Eric Carle published The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a copy has been bought somewhere every 57 seconds. At the last count, Carle has filled the world with 20 million hungry caterpillars. His larva has become an industry, passing into animation, jigsaws, toys, lunch boxes, T-shirts and - in Holland, at least - bottles of green shower gel.
Does the author gaze in disbelief at what his caterpillar has become? "So much from so little," says Carle, whose 70 or so stories with worldwide sales of 65 million have led to unprecedented rock-star status in the US, where he lives. "He's the Bruce Springsteen of kindergarten to third grade," says Nick Clark, director of The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amhurst, Massachusetts, underlining the exhilarated mobbing that greets Carle at signings and talks. He gets hundreds of letters from children every week ("Do you have a job?": Rebecca, six) and has an unexpected fan in President Bush, who nominated The Very Hungry Caterpillar as his favourite story when he was a child - even though George W was 24 when the book first came out.
"What can I do?" shrugs Carle the committed Democrat, at his home in Florida. Moreover, although he is now 75, Carle seems to be becoming more, not less prolific. He has published seven books since 2000 including Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too, Slowly Slowly Said the Sloth and Mister Seahorse, which was a booming hit in the US.
Now, 10 Little Rubber Ducks (Collins, £12.99) is the latest addition to his menagerie of animal tales. If you sit down and look at all Carle's books, they melt into one zoo of beasts and bugs wriggling or winging their way towards self-discovery: a mixed-up chameleon, a lonely firefly, a bad tempered ladybird. Does he stare at them and see a kindred spirit? "We're all animals," he replies. "I'm the hermit crab [from Home for Hermit Crab]; I like to be inside a lot. Maybe, it is to do with getting older, but travelling is so awful. Everyone is going to talk to you, everyone is going to invite you places and I can't handle that."
Recommended
Liv Little on gal-dem’s closure and her debut novel, Rosewater
Liv Little on gal-dem’s closure and her debut novel, Rosewater
Han Kang: ‘That will be a problem when I die – I won’t be able to finish my ideas’
Han Kang: ‘That will be a problem when I die – I won’t be able to finish my ideas’
Books of the month: From Deborah Levy to Claire Dederer
Books of the month: From Deborah Levy to Claire Dederer
Carle and his wife Barbara (Bobbie), a former Montessori teacher, have recently bought their house in Florida to escape the deep snow of Massachusetts winters. Standing in the gleaming light-filled house on the ocean's edge near Key Largo, Carle looks every inch the picture-book success. He is small and quietly spoken with eyes that shimmer with playfulness. He may be over three score and 15, but still sees the fun in designing a tiny fly for each urinal at the Eric Carle museum to assist precision targeting.
From here, the world outside looks bright, full of colourful promise, just like in Carle's books. 10 Little Rubber Ducks may have dark moments but it carries the hallmark of Carle's happy high-noon aesthetic. Bright, colourful collages fill the pages as the ducks come through the trauma of drifting on the high seas. A former graphic designer, he squeezes as much as possible out of each page.
10 Little Rubber Ducks covers animals, opposites, numbers and directions, but all camouflaged and lightly done. "Each page works like a poster," points out Motoko Inoue, Carle's business manager. "They convey complex ideas in a simple way." Carle writes in rhythmic text - "the heartbeat of the book" - and seduces children by giving them "something extra". This is a quacking electronic sound effect, a component which, it turns out, has malfunctioned in 150,000 copies, delaying publication in the US until June. It was holes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, flashing lights in The Lonely Firefly, pop-ups in Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me. "I want my books to be somewhere between the warmth of holding on to a toy, and the more abstract experience of book learning," he explains.
Carle has said many times that he isn't trying to preach to children, just hold their hand. There will be those who don't get Carle, who will be put off by his samey style and find Mister Seahorse a PC bore. But for children faced with the enormous task of growing up, Carle feels like the authentic voice of sympathy. "All my books are aimed at four- to six-year-olds. That period when you leave home and go to school," he explains. "Sometimes I feel I can nail it down to one day, that day when you leave the warmth and protection of home and go into the unknown. I just want to make that day a little bit easier."
Recommended
'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' author Eric Carle dies at 91
'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' author Eric Carle dies at 91
10 best Margaret Atwood books to add to your reading list: From ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ to ‘Alias Grace’
10 best Margaret Atwood books to add to your reading list: From ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ to ‘Alias Grace’
‘You made us all want to reach for the moon’: Fans pay tribute to late The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle
‘You made us all want to reach for the moon’: Fans pay tribute to late The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle
In a less obvious way, Carle's books are also about his life. Born in Syracuse, NY, in 1929, to German immigrant parents, Carle was a creative child, interested in nature. His first memories of school were of a happy "sun-filled room, large sheets of paper, colourful paints and fat brushes". It was a world of colour, freedom, light. All was to change when in 1934 Carle's parents decided to move back to Germany. "Most people with any choice in the matter were going the other way," he remarks wryly. So, from the age of six, Carle grew up in Nazi Germany. He looked up to Hitler and prized Rommel's autograph. School was the first shock: classes were cramped, pencils hard, paper rationed and corporal punishment inflicted. "I didn't know this was going to happen," remembers Carle. "The other kids did: three in this hand; three in that. And they [the welts] burned. And he [the teacher] did it with all his might. I know that was a turning-point in my life."
As Germany disintegrated, Carle was evacuated, and ended up begging for food from POWs. His father, a gentle guru, who taught Eric about nature and drawing, was taken prisoner in a camp in the Soviet Union. Carle did not see him for eight years. He returned when Carle was 18. "I rushed up to him on the station platform and thought, who is this man; this bundle of misery? All he had was his musket, heavy coat and shoes tied with string. He weighed 85 pounds and was a broken man." He spent the next years in and out of sanatoriums and died a premature death. "To this day" confesses Carle, "I can barely enjoy a good meal because of thinking about my father. I am left with a sadness. It might be psychobabble, but I rehash that period of my life through my books. The child I am helping," he says, "might just be me."
If one teacher turned him off school, two others were perpetual inspirations. Herr Krauss, Carle's grammar-school art teacher, liked Carle's loose, free drawings and risked his life showing him reproductions of forbidden work by what the Nazis called "degenerate" artists: Picasso, Klee, Matisse and some German Expressionists. Then there was Professor Ernest Schneidler, who taught at the art academy in Stuttgart, where Carle trained after leaving school. After working for two years as a poster designer, Carle, aged 23, returned to America.
The move to picture books was not planned; it fulfilled no boyhood dream. "I had an average interest in picture books. I had two kids, I'd buy them books once in a while." A turning-point came, aged 38, when author Bill Martin Jr spotted an ad of Carle's, who was by now working as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. He asked Carle to illustrate Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? "It absolutely set me on fire," remembers Carle. "The colourful paints and fat brushes of my first school came back to me. The child inside me was beginning to come joyfully back to life."
Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘Book of Many Things'
Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘Book of Many Things' (AFP via Getty Images)
Carle is still at his happiest in his studio, recently exploring life beyond the picture book by painting silk and aluminium, and creating abstract sculptures. With Mozart playing in the background, he spots, stipples, splashes and splatters. This is Carle's alpha state. "The whole world is gone. It is just you and these colours, so nice and simple."
Picasso's aspiration was to paint like a child; Carle, who paints for children, aspires to be like Picasso, or De Kooning. Beneath the picture-book illustrator is a frustrated fine artist. "I have been thinking, Eric, you should have been a painter from the very beginning, you should have stayed with an easel."
His plans now are to have no plans. "I have ideas all the time," he says, "but at this very moment I feel I will never do another book." He pauses. "However, if you speak to my editor, she'll say, 'Eric, I've heard it all before.' "
Biography: Eric Carle
Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1929, the son of a German immigrant father who became a clerk at the City Health Department. After his family re-emigrated to Germany, Carle studied graphic design in Stuttgart before returning to the US in 1952. His first children's picture book was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (by Bill Martin Jnr; 1967), followed by his first solo book, 1,2,3 to the Zoo (1968) and The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969). He has created over 70 picture books, translated into more than 30 languages; others include The Bad Tempered Ladybird (1976), The Very Busy Spider (1985); and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? (by Bill Martin Jnr; 1991). In 2003 he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award and Lifetime Achievement Award. Eric Carle died on Thursday 27 May 2021, aged 91.
An Interview with Eric Carle on his 87th Birthday
Here at StoryToys we were lucky enough to wish Eric Carle Happy Birthday as he tried out our brand new app, The Very Hungry Caterpillar™ – Creative Play, released in honor of his 87th birthday, and to ask him a few questions.
StoryToys: The caterpillar apps are used by over 1.5 million children. In My Very Hungry Caterpillar alone, they have eaten half a billion pieces of fruit in the app, spent 18 years painting, and created over 2 million butterflies. How does it feel to see your creations and much-loved characters now thriving in the digital world and continuing to influence a new generation in new ways?
Eric Carle: I still consider myself a beginner at learning how to use the computer – but I can see how technology and the development of apps, ebooks and computers are a part of the evolution of our world. It has been this way since the very beginning. Cave men once wrote stories in pictures on stone; later the book was invented and so on and so forth. So change is inevitable. And I am very pleased that my work is being enjoyed. I million butterflies, how beautiful!
ST: Your vision, aesthetic values and artistic techniques have consistently captured the imagination of children and adults alike worldwide since your very first publication. Now, approaching your 87th birthday, how does it feel to know that your unique vision has such an enduring and extensive influence?
EC: Well, it’s a great honor to know that my book has been read by generations of readers and families. It really is moving to receive emails and letters from parents who were raised with my books and who are now reading them to their own children. I think what was meaningful to a person as a child, to be able to share that with your own children, it’s quite powerful.
ST: The VHC was first published 47 years ago. What do you think your 40 year old self would make of apps like The VHC Creative Play, and the possibilities they afford children to encourage artistic expression?
EC: That is a very good question. I think in my 40’s I may have been more of a purist when it comes to my own work. I love books, the feel of the paper, the weight of a book in my hands. But now I can see how the whole world has changed with the advent of computers. There is so much design work now being done on computers, for example.
ST: Your design background always comes through in your “deceptively simple” yet very sophisticated images. How do you find the digital experience? Do you feel it’s something you would have enjoyed as a child?
EC:I think for my work I still enjoy so much the sensation of a paintbrush or a pencil on paper and the tactile experience of painting and cutting my tissue papers to make my illustrations. As a child I loved to draw and be in nature, take walks with my father.
I can’t say what my life would have been like to have grown up now. I can say that for me the bright colors in my work have been a kind of antidote to the grays and browns of my childhood years during the Second World War. And I hope my books, in the various forms in which they are now available, in books, on computers, on the stage, I hope that the colors are a source of comfort and hope in the way they have been for me over the years.
ST: Your books have a strong educational theme and encourage a love of nature. The apps based on your books also stress these themes, and encourage children to embrace a gentler pace. Do you have any concerns about children these days connecting to nature in such a fast paced and busy world?
EC: I don’t think about themes when I am making my books. I am not trying to convey a certain message. But my love of nature is always there because it is a part of me, a part of what I grew up learning about and appreciating. I hope we will take care of creatures and the oceans and the land. It is so important to expose children the beauty of art, literature, theatre, dance, music, poetry which all ennoble humankind. I think connecting to nature and to all of the arts are so important for all people, but especially to children.
Carle, Eric WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG? Godwin Books/Henry Holt (Children's Informational) $17.99 7, 31 ISBN: 978-1-250-15175-9
A lively collection of illustrations of crawling, creeping, and flying creatures offers a look at the versatility of several well-known children's artists.
As with What's Your Favorite Animal? (2014) and What's Your Favorite Color? (2017), Carle here showcases the work of 15 friends whose responses to the title question offer a wonderful range of styles, media, and palettes together with brief stories, poems, and comments. Multicolored dots on the green endpapers suggest caterpillar eggs on a leafy background. Each of the varied selection of arthropods within is presented in a contained but generous two-page spread. The creature selection goes beyond the title's "favorite bugs" to include millipedes and a couple of spider species. Facts about each are spare or absent, but this is an art book rather than an informational work. Selections vary, including Kenard Pak's graceful fireflies, Brendan Wenzel's bright peacock spiders, and Eric Fan's droll bowler-hatted, briefcase-toting worker bee. Ekua Holmes' portrait of herself as a brown-skinned young girl observing the busy ants in her ant farm joins Carle's humanoid butterfly-child on the cover and Carle himself disguised as a large and bearded Very Hungry Caterpillar (both the latter are white). Brief biographies introduce the artists; media and techniques aren't disclosed.
A terrific prompt and conversation starter for young artists. (Picture book. 2-9)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Carle, Eric: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?" Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A538293982/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=00945906. Accessed 17 May 2023.
Hugs & Kisses for the Grouchy Ladybug
Eric Carle. HarperCollins, $9.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-283568-0
In his trademark collages, Carle welcomes back a classic character whose grumpy mood is evident in her downturned mouth. Other animal friends act out their positive responses to the offer of "hugs and kisses." A green alligator smiles, a blue seal claps its flippers, and giraffes "stand tall." Hugs and kisses make a chameleon blush pink, while a donkey kicks up its heels. All of the animals welcome affection--will the ladybug? On the final two spreads, the ladybug's frown transforms into a gentle smile: "even a grouchy ladybug... needs hugs and kisses too." Readers who don't tend to welcome physical attention, however, especially without consent, may disagree. Ages 4-8. (Dec.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Hugs & Kisses for the Grouchy Ladybug." Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 46, 12 Nov. 2018, p. 61. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A564341798/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f229e073. Accessed 17 May 2023.
Carle, Eric MY FIRST I SEE YOU Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (Children's Fiction) $7.99 7, 10 ISBN: 978-1-5344-2454-8
Carle's iconic illustrations are recycled for a new generation of toddlers.
As she did in My First Peek-a-Boo Animals (2017) and My First Busy Book (2015), designer Hannah Frece has chosen images from the Eric Carle backlist to illustrate a simple board book. This time mirrors have been added to images on the right-hand side of each spread. If the book is held just right, the child's face is reflected within the outline of a cloud, a sun, a tree, a moon, and a star. (Sticky fingers quickly scratch and smudge the mirrors.) A heart-shaped cutout on the cover reveals the first mirror and complements the butterflies on the first-page verso. Rhyming stanzas starting with "I see you in..." are completed by a description of an appropriate action. So a butterfly "flutters so high," clouds "float across the sky," a lion "roars," the sun "shines," a monkey "swings," and so on. Some actions, seemingly forced by the need to rhyme, may puzzle young children. Do puppies really play peekaboo? The final double-page spread invites children to repeat each action. After one reading most toddlers will already be fluttering, roaring, and waving along, but the reprise is a reminder that reading with toddlers should be an interactive experience.
Carle's illustrations are lovely as always, but this repackaging seems unnecessary--more marketing ploy than essential purchase. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Carle, Eric: MY FIRST I SEE YOU." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A567651468/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=828f6fbc. Accessed 17 May 2023.
Carle, Eric WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Godwin Books/Henry Holt (Children's Poetry) $18.99 7, 23 ISBN: 978-1-250-29514-9
Fourteen renowned author/illustrators share musings about their favorite foods.
In this follow-up to What's Your Favorite Color (2017), a variety of children's-book creators present one double-page spread each about their favorite meal, snack, or dessert. Each is done in the artist's characteristic style, from Dan Santat's close attention to detail to Isabelle Arsenault's painterly presentation. The text varies significantly as well. Some entries are brief, like Misa Saburi's entry on strawberry daifuku: "Mochi stuffed with / sweet azuki paste / and a fresh strawberry / is quite magical!" Others are more informative, like Eric Carle's opening description of tannen honig, or pine honey, and some are funny, like Laurie Keller's assertion that French fries come from the sun. Greg Pizzoli inserts a sly admonition to vegetarianism, saying that "what I like most of all / is that nothing in my bowl / had parents." The final two pages show photographs of the authors (majority white and also majority women) as children with their biographies. While this collection is enjoyable enough, it remains to be seen whether children will be curious enough about the topic (especially given children's general lack of name recognition) to warrant rereading.
Good for young audiences and their grown-ups looking for something quick, enjoyable, but not too filling. (Picture book/poetry. 5-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Carle, Eric: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?" Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A583840644/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=83a6f1c8. Accessed 17 May 2023.
Christmas Cheer for The Grouchy Ladybug
by Eric Carle; illus. by the author
Preschool Harper/HarperCollins 32 pp.
9/19 978-0-06-293226-6 $9.99
The durable little grouch gets a new catchphrase for the season: "Bah, humbug!" Undistracted by the (determinedly secular) motifs of the season--bells, snowmen, candles--the bug flies blithely, bitterly onward until the last page turns that frown upside-down. Why? Friends. Carle fans will enjoy this Christmas souvenir in bold, clean collage. Don't miss the handsome endpapers.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Sutton, Roger. "Christmas Cheer for The Grouchy Ladybug." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 95, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2019, p. 27. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A610418841/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d7dc357e. Accessed 17 May 2023.
Hugs and Kisses for the Grouchy Ladybugby Eric CARLEillus. by Eric Carle. 32p. HarperCollins/Harper. Dec. 2018. Tr $9.99. ISBN 9780062835680.COPY ISBNToddler-PreS–Carle brings preschoolers another story about the beloved grouchy critter, first introduced 40 years ago. Readers will see that hugs and kisses make a green alligator smile, a blue seal clap, a brown kangaroo jump for joy, and a gray donkey kick up his heels. A host of other colorful animals react favorably to simple displays of affection. By the end of the story, even the ladybug is smiling after a hug and a kiss. The beautiful collage work is the star of the show as the text is minimal. In true Carle fashion, the book allows for the extension of parent/child discussion as young readers will have a chance to identify animals as well as colors. This is a charming tale that shows how love can move even the grumpiest among us. VERDICT A welcome addition to both the ever-popular Carle collection as well as books for Valentine's Day. Reviewed by Kristen Todd-Wurm, Middle Country Public Library, NY , Feb 01, 2019
Christmas Cheer for the Grouchy Ladybug
Eric Carle. HarperCollins, $9.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-293226-6
“Christmas means joy for all”—almost. Carl’s enduring Grumpy Ladybug doesn’t have holiday spirit, even as the season’s sights, sounds, and traditions move into full swing: “Bells ring/ and everyone sings.../ Presents wait under the tree.” Carle’s painterly, patchwork-style art brings energy and richness to depictions of holiday decorations, falling snow, a fiddling grasshopper, barnyard animals, and Santa Claus. At last, after pages of “Bah, humbug!”s, the grouch’s smile turns upside down. A bright and evergreen addition to a holiday library. Ages 4–8. [em](Sept.) [/em]