Feb 3, 2012

Fiction Fridays: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

My first Fiction Fridays post was last week - this is my second.

What it is:
@homedad hosts a meme called Fiction Fridays which is all about showcasing the children's books you are liking, reading or enduring.


My book this week is not something we're currently reading but a personal and family favourite:


The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle, 1969 (Puffin)

 
In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.


Everyone loves this book.
I have very clear memories of it from kindergarten: delight every time I found it available in the bookshelf, the gorgeous colours, the die-cut pages, poking my little fingers through the holes.
It was one of the first books I bought to read to my own children, and our soft-cover edition is much-thumbed and dog-eared.
Recently my sister bought them the hard-cover edition so we have that too.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of those rare perfect books. It is beautiful, a good story, and very clever. The blurb on the back describes it as "deceptively simple" and it is. In addition to a lovely story, these are the things covered simply, beautifully and perfectly in this book:
  • nature: where caterpillars come from, what they eat
  • night and day
  • days of the week
  • passage of time
  • counting
  • types of fruit
  • colours and shapes
  • interactivity
  • nutrition
  • hunger, eating too much, feeling full, how to feel better
  • temperance
  • metamorphosis
How many picture books cover this much ground in 11 pages?

Here are some of those beautiful pages

end papers




butterfly wing


Do you have a favourite picture book? What makes it special?


If you would like to play Fiction Fridays, click on the badge below to see how:


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4 comments:

  1. It really is just a perfect picture book, great choice :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The very first book I ever borrowed when I started primary school. I remember loving all the holes in the food that the HP ate through and marvelling at how groovy the illustrations were. Still are in fact.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too - love the beautiful illustrations in all Eric Carle books

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