Customer Reviews

The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book

5 star:		(130)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an awesome book I loved it as a child and my son seems to like it too. Its short which makes it easy to read with a child and a small attention spand. Its also very colorful so it grabs there attention.

I bought this book to use for therapy. I did not realize that the memory board game is physically attached to the book. When you open the book the board game pops up. This is too distracting for young children. I ended up cutting the game out of the book, which left me with an odd shaped book with space on top of the pages. The memory game has the tiles fixed into it, so you cannot shuffle them to create different patterns. It doesn't take the children very long to establish where the tiles are. Overall, I was disappointed with this purchase- the pages in the story are small and the game quickly became too repetitive.

This was a fantastic book. I loved it in english and in German. That is how a book should be. I bet there isn't a kid who doesn't know who Eric Carle is he is that great of an author. He has many great books. I love each and every one of his books. No dought in my mind

This book is a great opportunity to count out the fruits, and share a great giggle with your child. It is a more subtle way to engage your child in experiencing numbers.

Story Synopsis:
- A caterpillar eats his way through different foods until he is full and weaves a cocoon transforming into a beautiful butterfly. Charming colorful illustrations of foods along with the fat caterpillar and catchy little holes in the foods where the caterpillar "had his snack" make this book a hit with young children.

Review:
- Eric Carle's classic, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" has charmed millions over the years with it's simple memorable story, striking illustrations and the gimmicky holes on each of its' pages. To date, more than 12 million copies of this book have been sold in its original, full-sized edition, and mini editions. This beloved tale of science and gluttony has also been translated into 20 languages and counting. Die-cut pages (each page has a hole where the "caterpillar" ate through the food item) illustrate what the caterpillar ate on successive days. Strikingly bold, colorful pictures and a simple text in large, clear type tell the story of a hungry little caterpillar's culinary progress through an amazing variety and quantity of foods. Full at last, he weaves a cocoon around himself and goes to sleep, to emerge a few weeks later as a wonderfully transformed and beautiful butterfly! The final, double-page picture of the butterfly is a joyous explosion of color, a vibrant affirmation of the wonder and beauty of Nature. This story is a hit every time. Carle's bright colors and clever die-cut artwork never cease to entertain even the youngest child, and there is surely nothing in nature closer to magic than the emergence of a butterfly. This is a beautiful, educational and fun book.

Literary Features For Young Readers:
- Simple words appropriate to pre-readers, younger children and ELLs (English Language Learners).
- The predictability of the words and their tie-in with the illustrations makes the book easy for pre-readers to understand.
- The rhythm of the prose makes the book memorable and fun book to read for little people.
- Strikingly bold, colorful pictures tell the story of the hungry little caterpillar in complement with the simple words.
- Eric Carle's art gimmick (i.e. the die-cut holes through the food illustrations on each page) gives small children (and the occasional adult like me!) an extra bit of fun and enjoyment
- The moral lessons of the story are simple and universal: "Don't judge a person by the way they look" and "real beauty is more than skin-deep."

Teaching Tie-ins:
- Counting skills (Foods accumulate progressively)
- The days of the week.
- Nutrition (The best food for the caterpillar is the leaf, not the candy, cake, etc. or why we can't eat chocolate and candy all day long)
- Intro to science and biology:
It is a fun book with its' "holes" that have been eaten through the pages, and become a preschoolers introduction to science/biology when the little caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly.
- Shapes (foods)

Possible Projects:
- Food or nutrition mobiles and other related projects.
- Art collages in the style or Eric Carle using torn tissue and other media.
- Simple life cycle science projects (posters are life cycle mobiles)
- Caterpillar art activity: creating caterpillars out of an egg cartoons.
- As a preschool and kindergarten teacher, I had classes perform simple plays for young children based upon this book.
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I highly recommend this charming little book for younger children and ELLs (English Language Learners).

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

I have loved this story since I was little but I bought this particular version for the cute caterpillar that came with it!

I would recommend purchasing this book+caterpillar set over just purchasing the book itself because it helps take the story to an even more interactive level which makes story time that much more memorable and enjoyable.

I hope this helps!

Through no fault of its own, this book is perhaps best known these days as the story President George W. Bush named as his "favorite book". Ignoring the fact that the Mr. Bush was born in 1946 and the book was published originally in 1969, it's a good idea to reexamine "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" on the basis of its own merits. It is the best known Eric Carle book by far and has remained a beloved text since the day it was conceived and published.

Here's the plot, inasmuch as there is one. A caterpillar (make that a very HUNGRY caterpillar) proceeds to eat his way through an amazing and amusing assortment of fruits, sweets, and (in time) leaves. After becoming quite a fat little fellow, the caterpillar makes a cocoon for himself and eventually emerges as a splendiferous butterfly. The end.

I'm going to ignore the fact that as a child I found this book a bit repetitive. We are told that children like to hear repeated phrases in books, and perhaps this is true. From what I can recall, however, this book bugged me with its continually repeated, "but he was still hungry"s. Looking at it now, though, it is a lovely little work. The caterpillar has far more expressions on his face than I initially remembered. When he's searching for food he has a somewhat bewildered look in his eyes. When he's eaten an amusingly large assortment of foods his eyes droop as he attempts to live through his own stomachache. Oddly, the time he looks the most distressed is after he has turned into a beautiful butterfly. Now his face is contorted in such a way that his drooping eyes and open mouth make him look as if he is crooning a sentimental sad ballad to the viewer.

To be frank, I'm not the biggest Carle fan in the world. But he really was one of the forefathers of the collage picture book. And though I might prefer some of his later book to the caterpillar, there's no denying that the book has had the kind of staying power most authors only dream of. So by all means pull up a chair and take a gander at the very hungry caterpillar. It's a nice tale that amuses and entertains even as it helps children to count.

The very hungry caterpillar is an excellent story for young children as it teaches them to read through repetition. It's a very simple story. The pictures are bright. I read this book with my preschool children quite often. They now read along with me and just have to point at all the foods as we say the names and count them. Thanks to this book they now also know that caterpillars spin a cocoon also known as a chrysalis, and when the caterpillar sleeps in his cocoon he will come out a beautiful butterfly. They learned all this through reading a simple children's story several times. I know repetition can be hard for parents but it really is a key to young children's learning. That's why I love Eric Carle stories he uses repetition in a fun way.

The book is one of Eric Carle's best. I purchased this one for my grandson (3 years old) along with numerous other books. He singled out this book immediately for me to read. The pictures are colourful and the story is easy to follow. The cutouts on each page are added fun. I am a retired kindergarten teacher and this book is used in the classroom year after year and withstands the test of time for educational purposes. I found the price a little high for Amazon products, but probably no more than a book from Chapters. This book along with "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" are a must for any child in my opinion.

My two year old daughter absolutely loves this book. She asks for her caterpillar book every night before bed... I love reading this classic to her, a must for any collection of children's books!