The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Title: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Author and Illustrator: Eric Carle
Publisher and Date of Publication: Philomel Books, 1987
Genre: Fiction, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2

Summary: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" starts out as an egg. A caterpillar hatches on Sunday and decides he is hungry. So each day the caterpillar eats a little more. He starts out with one apple on Monday and by Saturday he has eaten all kinds of junk food and has a stomache ache. On the next Sunday, he eats a leaf and feels much better so he makes a cocoon and goes to sleep. When the caterpillar awakes, he is a beautiful butterfly!


Response: I loved this book. I think that young students, like first-graders, would love to hear this story. This picture book is rather old, compared to other books but it's still a classic. I've heard the story when I was younger but forgot it. I think that children would like this story so much because the food that the caterpillar eats, especially on Saturday, is the common junk foods that children like so good. The caterpillar eats chocolate cake, an ice cream cone, a pickle, a slice of cheese and salami, a lollipop, a piece of cherry pie, a sausage, a cupcake, and a slice of watermelon. But then the caterpillar gets a stomach ache so this teaches kids that when they eat all that, they get a stomach ache. Students also enjoy seeing the actual holes in the food, where the caterpillar "ate" through it. This story also teaches young students about the cycle of the caterpillar when it turns into a butterfly. There is an explosion of color on the butterfly on the last page. When Carle says that the caterpillar built a cocoon, he explains it by saying that it was like a small house. Carle's illustrations are so famous. I reconize his works just by seeing the cover of the book. I really enjoy looking at his tissue paper technique of making the illustrations. I think it's amazing. I hope to collect all of Carle's works to use in my classroom.

Teaching Ideas: I think this would be a good introduction into life cycles in science from the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Or it could also be a health lesson to show what happens when you eat like the caterpillar ate. He got fat and had a stomach ache.