Eric Carle : His Brown Bears and Hungry Caterpillars!
- Zinnia
- Sep 1, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 2, 2019
The other day, I was helping Mummy pack the books I no longer read. Some really colourful books caught my eye! Mummy told me that as a toddler, these books were my favourites! The titles were so catchy and the books so colourful! I sat down to read them again.
I had read Eric Carle's books when I was about 3 years old. Reading them all over again was such a pleasure and so much fun. I know why I loved them so much! They are colourful, easy to read, beautiful and have vibrant pictures of animals, birds and insects - any child would want to read them.
Since I don't remember my first reactions to these books, I asked mummy to help me write this blog. She agreed on one condition - I had to do some research on Eric Carle on Google!
He is such a friendly looking old man! He is 90 years old and lives in USA. He has written about 23 books and illustrated more than 70 books for children.
Eric Carle was born to German parents, on 25 June 1929. He is a famous American illustrator and writer of children's books. He is a living legend. I wish I could meet and tell him that I love his books!
His picture book,"The Very Hungry Catterpillar" was published in 1969 and translated into 66 languages. Recently, on completing 50 years since publication, Google paid tribute to Carle and his famous book by asking him to design a Google doodle!
Eric Carle has been honoured for his contribution to education of children with many awards. There is also The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts, USA. If I ever visit the US, I will surely go and see this Museum.
The illustrations by Eric Carle are really unique. I was so impressed with his art. I discovered that he creates his art work in 'collage' technique. He cuts hand painted paper and sticks them in layers to make the colours brighter. I must try it sometime.
His love for nature and for children show in his work. Each book has an interesting story about nature. The language is very easy, mostly a few words repeated again and again! It's fun reading his books and even a toddler can understand what he wants to say. There are a lot of details and information about animals around us, written like an interesting story. "Brown Bear,Brown Bear" used to be my favourite!
Eric Carle's books are excellent for children up to 7 years of age. Some of my favourites books written by him are :-
1. The Very hungry Catterpillar (it explains how Catterpillars become butterflies ).
2. Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
3. Polar Bear, Polar Bear (it talks about endangered animals like Polar Bears etc).
4. Mr Seahorse.
5. Slowly Slowly said the Sloth.
6. Today is Monday (you can learn the days of the week).
7. From Head to Toe (you learn about parts of the body).
8. The Tiny Seed (it tells us how a plant grows from a seed).
9. The Mixed up Chameleon.
10. The Bad Tempered Ladybird.
There are many other beautiful books written and illustrated by Eric Carle. I am sure all children would love them!
Happy reading!
How did i miss reading this one. Very good read.. 👌
What a delightful read Tumo!! You’ve researched Eric Carle very well and I have learnt so many new things about him. I’ve only read ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ and after reading this post I want to read his other books too..