The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of my favorite children’s books so I chose Eric Carle for my latest author study subject.
A quick biography:
Eric Carle was born on June 25, 1929 in Syracuse, NY and moved to Germany (where his mother was originally from) when he was six years old. Homesick for America, Eric moved to New York City in 1952 with $40 in his pocket and landed a job as a graphic designer at the New York Times.
After serving in the Korean War, Eric returned home and later became an art director at an advertising agency (very Mad Men). Education and author Bill Martin Jr. first noticed the illustration of a red lobster Eric had created for an advertisement and asked him to collaborate on a picture book. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was published in 1967 and became a best-seller.
Soon Eric was writing and illustrating his own books. One of his first was The Very Hungry Caterpillar which was written in 1969.
In 2002, he and his wife Barbara founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts which has had over half a million visitors. On March 20, 2009, a Google doodle (that Eric created) was dedicated to him to celebrate the first day of spring.
Eric has won numerous awards for his work in children’s literature, most notably the Children’s Literature Legacy Award awarded by professional children’s librarians for making “substantial and lasting contributions to literature for children.” In 2019, a jumping spider that mimics a caterpillar was named after him to commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Eric’s 90th birthday!
Then I read Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth and we did our craft.
Eric Carle hand paints papers and uses a collage technique to create his illustrations so I wanted to do something similar. I’m really happy with how this art project turned out. I’m hoping to have an Eric Carle-themed program for preschoolers sometime in the future so we can do it together in person!
The Short Stack Librarian 