I remember Eric Carle once telling me that one copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar sells every minute around the world. It’s so special to think that a picture book can reach so many children, be gifted to so many new babies, and be held by the little hands of so many new and eager readers and listeners every day. Since its first appearance in 1969, this big-eyed and ravenous caterpillar has become a beloved icon, recognizable around the world. Today, in honor of the 44th anniversary of the publication of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I thought it might be nice to share some of the many languages this classic book has been translated into. It’s great to know that so many children (and adults!) around the world are united by their love of a very special caterpillar.
Chinese
Arabic
Urdu
Vietnamese
French
Russian
Spanish
Here’s a complete list of all the many language translations of the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Happy Very Hungry Caterpillar Day! Join in the celebrations today by sharing this classic with someone special.
Next week marks the anniversary of the publication of one of our very favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar! We hope you can help us celebrate here at The Carle this weekend. We’re kicking off festivities with a Members’ Pancake Breakfast in the morning, followed by a day of Caterpillar-themed storytimes, films and activities. We hear there will even be an appearance from the Caterpillar himself! Here are all the details:
Annual Pancake Breakfast Celebrating Very Hungry Caterpillar Day
(Members-Only event)
Sunday, March 17, 2013
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
First Seating – 9:00 am Second Seating – 10:15 amETA: Now full!
Free to members, but space is limited. Reserve early at membership@carlemuseum.org.
Celebration of the 2013 Very Hungry Caterpillar Day
Sunday,March 17, 2013
12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Free with Museum Admission
Celebrate The Caterpillar’s special day with us!
Join us for special story times, films, art activities and a visit from The Very Hungry Caterpillar! Plus Museum Shop sale – 15% off all caterpillar-related books and toys!
12:30 pm – The Very Hungry Caterpillar Film
1:00 pm – Meet the Caterpillar
1:30 pm – Storytime
2:30 pm – Picture Writer: The Art of Picture Books Film
3:00 pm – Meet the Caterpillar
3:30 pm – Storytime
4:00 pm – The Very Hungry Caterpillar Film
There will be fun all-day art activities and all children will receive Butterfly temporary tattoos. Bring your camera!
If you can’t make it to the museum consider participating in our friendly competition by creating your own version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar using found materials and submitting a photo of your creation. Winners will win an original doodle by Eric Carle and more! Check out the details here: http://www.carlemuseum.org/studioblog/?p=2677
Today we’re also giving away a very soft and plushy Caterpillar to one lucky blog reader. To win, leave a comment below BEFORE 12 pm EST Saturday, March 16th. Tell us, If you were to invite The Very Hungry Caterpillar over for a birthday dinner celebration, what would you prepare for him? Good luck and we’re announcing the winner on Sunday, March 17th.
Happy Valentine’s Day from The Carle. We’re loving these sweet Eric Carle love-inspired canvas art prints! Tell us about something (or someone) you love today. Here’s a list of our favorite Valentine-themed books.
It’s time for our last holiday giveaway! In celebration of The Carle’s 10th Anniversary, three wonderful artists have given us original doodles to share with our friends. Two lucky readers have already won doodles by Peter Laird and Tony DiTerlizzi. This week we’re offering the opportunity to win a doodle by Eric Carle. The doodle is an original sketch, autographed on 9″ x 6″ heavy cardstock.
We love the Caterpillar! Do you have a favorite character from one of Eric Carle’s books?
Last month at our 10th Anniversary celebration, Eric Carle and his wife Barbara spoke to guests and friends about the journey of creating The Carle Museum and reflecting on 10 amazing years. They thank all the friends and supporters that have made this museum possible and the experience of visiting The Carle special. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t seen it yet.
We had such a wonderful anniversary weekend last month and look forward to all the years full of fantastic events, exhibits and friends. Thank you again to Eric Carle, Peter Laird and Tony DiTerlizzi for all their support and for the hours they each spent doodling for fans. We are so grateful for the opportunity to give our blog readers the chance to win one of their pieces of art!
Want to win this autographed Caterpillar doodle? Here’s how:
– Leave a comment below and let us know your favorite Eric Carle book or character.
Please note: Comments are individually approved to filter out spam, so there may be a delay in your comment appearing below.
Entries must be received before 12:00 pm Eastern time on Wednesday, January 3rd. We’ll pick a winner at random and announce it on Thursday, January 4th. Good luck and Happy Holidays!
It’s time for another holiday giveaway! In celebration of The Carle’s 10th Anniversary, three wonderful artists have given us original doodles to share with our friends. Last week one lucky reader won a doodle by Tony DiTerlizzi, and this week we’re offering the opportunity to win a doodle by Peter Laird, co-creator of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The doodle is an original sketch, autographed on 9″ x 6″ heavy cardstock.
Who is your favorite Ninja Turtle?
We love this picture of two very different turtles by two of our favorite artists, Eric Carle and Peter Laird!
We want to thank Peter Laird for his hours spent doodling for fans and are so grateful he made an extra one that one of you lucky readers will be able to take home!
How to enter:
– Leave a comment below and let us know, if you could have any super power, what would it be?
Please note: Comments are individually approved to filter out spam, so there may be a delay in your comment appearing below.
Entries must be received before 12:00 pm Eastern time on Wednesday, December 19th. We’ll pick a winner at random and announce it on Thursday, December 20th. Be sure to check back next week for our last giveaway — a doodle by Eric Carle!
If you haven’t seen it yet, the film is about Eric Carle and his life. Viewers learn how Eric makes books and where his ideas come from. Film Director, Kate Geis remarks about the film, “we see the man reflected in his work — an artist who loves color and the simple collage imagery of animals and insects that appealed to the six-year-old child he once was, and the 83 year old man he is today. Eric is a warm and encouraging artist. He creates to satisfy his own desire to make art but he wants his audience, whether they are 4 or 40 or 80 years old, to be artists too.”
This film is extra special to us because it culminates in the creation of The Eric Carle Museum. After a lifetime of creating successful picture books and selling over 33 million copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric and his wife Barbara give back by building a 40,000 square foot museum to celebrate picture book art from around the world and the creative spirit in each visitor who walks through its doors. You can read more about the film on its website.
It’s such an educational and inspiring film and is well-loved by educators who use it in their classrooms when doing units on Eric Carle. It has already won the American Library Association’s ALSC 2012 Notable Children’s Video award for “videos for children 14 years of age and younger that exhibit especially commendable quality, show respect for children’s intelligence and imagination and reflect and encourage the interests of children in exemplary ways.”
Here’s a trailer for the film:
Like what you see? Pick up your own copy of the film in our store on online.
Today is the anniversary of Eric Carle’s bestselling picture book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar! Hooray!
To celebrate 41 years of a classic book that has reached and delighted so many children all over the world, today we are giving away a very special gift to one lucky reader. The winner of this giveaway will receive a hardcover copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, autographed by Eric Carle and a copy of the new, award-winning DVD about Eric Carle and his work, Eric Carle: Picture Writer: The Art of the Picture Book.
To enter, leave a comment below before 12:00 pm EST Wednesday, March 21st. We’ll randomly pick one winner from the comments on Wednesday. Good luck!
UPDATE: Submissions for the giveaway are now closed. Congratulations to the winner of this giveaway, Brook Gideon!
What lovely comments! It’s so nice to read how The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other Eric Carle’s books have impacted so many of you and your families. And especially nice to hear how many of you have been able to visit us here at The Eric Carle Museum! Here’s to many more years of bringing the joy of Eric Carle books into your lives! Happy Birthday to you, Very Hungry Caterpillar and Happy Spring!
I just had to share with you this wonderful matching game made by one of our customers. Marabeth Nally, a teacher at the RMSC Preschool in Rochester, New York purchased some of the Very Hungry Caterpillar Color Dot fabric and Very Hungry Caterpillar Sticker Set. I was so delighted when she recently stopped by to show what her classroom had made with these and a few other easy, recycled materials.
This adorable pouch is filled with an assortment of multicolor lids. The children and their families collected them from milk and juice and other beverage bottles and then recycled them into a fun game. The children then stuck matching sets of stickers onto the bottle lids to create a memory game.
To play the game, place all the lips face down and turn over two at a time. Try to remember where each image was to create matching pairs. Marabeth even made an adorable tag for the game that says “Reduce, Reuse, Rejoice!” Isn’t that a wonderful idea? Thanks for sharing, Marabeth!
Have you brought Eric Carle’s books into your classroom in a creative way? Tell us about it!
You may remember the our bestselling Eric Carle DVD was recently remade into a gorgeous and inspirational short film. Here’s the link to July’s post about it.
We’re so happy to share the news that ALA has named it a 2012 Notable Children’s Video! The videos that win this recognition are “videos for children 14 years of age and younger that exhibit especially commendable quality, show respect for children’s intelligence and imagination and reflect and encourage the interests of children in exemplary ways.”
We couldn’t agree more. Thanks, ALA! If you haven’t had the chance to see the video yet, here’s a sneak peek. You can purchase copies on our website here or check it out of your local library.
Have you discovered Pinterest yet? It’s an online bookmarking system that helps you collect and organize all the amazing and noteworthy things you find on the web. It creates a virtual scrapbook or inspiration board for as many categories as you can dream up.
Maybe you’re like me and used to rip pages out of magazines of things you loved or wanted to remember and then shoved them into shoeboxes and file folders all over your house. I love Pinterest because everything is so visual and accessible. Instead of bogging down my computer with bookmarked pages that I forget to ever look at again, Pinterest is a way to collect blog posts that I liked or images that inspired me, in a very visual and accessible way. I can sort everything into categories to keep it tidy, such as “Art Activities to do with the Kids” or “Future Sewing Projects.” That way, instead of rifling through a crowded list or trying to remember where I saw that great idea, I can pop over to Pinterest and be inspired all over again.
We love seeing all the cute children’s book related goodies we find online and Pinterest is a great way for us to keep it all organized and share it with our fans. It’s so much fun to see all the ways people are inspired to create activities for their kids and classrooms that use Eric Carle’s books and other children’s books in new and interesting ways. We also love finding pictures of book themed birthday parties and baby showers, especially ones that share their own DIY crafts! Here’s a peek at some of our pin boards:
And we’re always adding more! So if you’re already on Pinterest,
We can’t wait to see the things you find online and share with us too!
Today we’re also giving away a very soft and plushy Caterpillar to one lucky blog reader. To win, leave a comment below BEFORE 12 pm EST Saturday, March 16th. Tell us, If you were to invite The Very Hungry Caterpillar over for a birthday dinner celebration, what would you prepare for him? Good luck and we’re announcing the winner on Sunday, March 17th.
We’re so excited that 
