![The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle](https://i0.wp.com/baneslibraries.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Very-Hungry-Caterpillar-by-Eric-Carle.png?fit=188%2C300&ssl=1)
Our Rating:
Library Formats:
books
Age Group:
0-5
Genre:
Children’s Picture Books
I was on Google and typed in ‘best stories for 2 year olds’ and The Hungry Caterpillar popped up so I ordered it from LibrariesWest. At this point I hasn’t read the book in 30 years, but felt so familiar with the illustration on the front cover, the painterly collage of a simple chubby caterpillar, that the story was already coming back to me.
I started reading the book to my then 2 year old who was interested in why there were holes in the pages and why the pages were different lengths and began jabbing and poking the pages to try and make sense of these quirks. I liked the fact she was intrigued by the format of the book and she was eager to carry on exploring it.
Part of the story features a glorious double page spread of delicious illustrations of tempting food – this has got to be the best page in the book! We took our time talking about the each of the foods and pretend to grab and eat it off the pages, whilst making ourselves feel quite hungry in the process!
The caterpillars journey is quite short and sweet, but when it’s time for the big reveal at the end author Eric Carle hasn’t shied away and you meet a gorgeous, colourful, mosaic butterfly which has such visual impact. It jogged my memory of having the book read to me as a child and I felt instantly comforted by the sight of it.
My child is now 3 and we still revisit The Hungry Caterpillar on a monthly basis. The story is growing with us, and my child can now use the book to count how many fruits the caterpillar eats, we talk about what food we have eaten/would like to try, what the caterpillars life cycle is and so on.
A timeless classic for children aged 0 – 5.