The Very Hungry Caterpillar is 45!

Who hasn’t read the The Very Hungry Caterpillar at least a dozen times? With his distinctive shape and colouring, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar is an instantly recognisable character born from the much-loved children’s book. This year, Puffin celebrates 45 years since the greedy yet loveable character first ate his way from baby caterpillar to beautiful butterfly, with the release of a special 45th anniversary edition.

The author

The author of this popular book Eric Carle is an internationally bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator of books for very young children. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of literally millions of children all over the world and has been translated into more than 50 languages and sold over 33 million copies. Since the Caterpillar was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 110 million copies of his books have sold around the world.

He was born in New York, but spent his early life in Germany. He returned to the States in his early twenties and worked as a graphic designer for the New York Times. He went on to be the art director of an advertising agency before he began writing and illustrating children’s books. Eric lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Barbara. The Carles opened The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts in 2002.

Kids’ activities linked to the book

Linked to this anniversary, leading charity Action for Children is teaming up with The Very Hungry Caterpillar™ to get under-5’s fundraising to help other children in an event called The Giant Wiggle. The charity is encouraging children’s centres, nurseries and groups for under-5’s throughout the UK to host sponsored Giant Wiggle events on The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day, 20th March. As well as the 45th anniversary celebration of Eric Carle’s beloved book, 2014 marks Action for Children’s 145th year.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar uses distinctive collage illustrations, ‘eaten’ holes in the pages and simple text with educational themes – counting, the days of the week, foods, and a butterfly’s life stages.

The caterpillar’s diet is fictional rather than scientifically accurate, but the book introduces concepts of insects’ life stages where transformations take place including the ultimate metamorphosis from ‘hungry caterpillar’ to ‘beautiful butterfly’, and it has been endorsed by the Royal Entomological Society.

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