One very hungry caterpillar, lots of brightly coloured paper and an artist who believed that books should be played with as well as read. Meet Eric Carle.

There aren’t many children’s books quite as instantly recognisable as The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The little green caterpillar. The bright red head. The tiny holes nibbled through apples, pears, plums, strawberries — and, eventually, rather a lot of cake.

For more than half a century, children around the world have poked their fingers through those holes and followed a hungry little caterpillar as he eats his way towards becoming a beautiful butterfly.

But the man who created him had a fascinating story of his own.

Welcome to Who Was…?, our Tiny Humans Read series introducing little readers — and their grown-ups — to the authors, illustrators and imaginations behind some of our favorite books.

And we’re starting with the wonderful Eric Carle.

Who was Eric Carle?

Eric Carle was an author, artist and illustrator best known for creating The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

He was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1929, to German parents. Some of his happiest early memories were of walking through the countryside with his father, who would lift pieces of bark and show him the tiny creatures living underneath.

Caterpillars. Beetles. Spiders. Small creatures that many of us might walk straight past. Years later, they would find their way into Eric’s books. But when Eric was six, his family moved back to Germany. It was a difficult time to grow up there. The Second World War began when he was ten and his father was sent away to fight. School could be strict too.

There was, however, one place where Eric felt at home: art.

The teacher who showed him color

One of Eric’s teachers noticed his artistic talent. At the time, Germany was ruled by the Nazis, who had banned many kinds of modern art. Eric’s art teacher, Herr Krauss, took an enormous risk. He secretly invited the young Eric to his home and showed him artwork by modern artists including Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.

Imagine being twelve years old and suddenly discovering paintings unlike anything you’d ever been allowed to see before. Bright colors. Strange shapes. Pictures that didn’t necessarily look the way things looked in real life. Eric never forgot them. Years later, his own books would burst with exactly that sense of color and freedom.

From New York City to Brown Bear

After studying art in Germany, Eric returned to America in 1952. He was 23 years old, arrived in New York with just $40, and found work as a graphic designer. And then something rather wonderful happened. An author named Bill Martin Jr. spotted a picture Eric had created for an advertisement — a big red lobster. He liked it so much that he asked Eric to illustrate a children’s book he had written. That book was:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Published in 1967, it helped launch Eric Carle’s extraordinary career in children’s books. Soon, Eric began creating stories of his own. And then came a hole punch.

How a hole punch created a caterpillar

Yes, really! One day Eric was playing with a hole punch and making holes in a pile of paper. Looking at them gave him an idea. What if a bookworm had eaten through the pages? His first idea was actually called A Week with Willi Worm. But his editor wasn’t terribly keen on the worm. She suggested a caterpillar instead. And Eric immediately thought: A caterpillar could become a butterfly. That tiny suggestion transformed the idea. In 1969, The Very Hungry Caterpillar was published.

The unusual pages became part of the story. Children could put their fingers through the holes left behind as the caterpillar munched his way through his enormous feast. It wasn’t simply a story to listen to. It was a book children could touch, explore and play with. That was exactly what Eric wanted.

How did Eric Carle make his pictures?

This might be our favorite part! Eric didn’t simply paint his caterpillar onto a page. He created his illustrations using collage. First, he painted sheets of thin tissue paper in different colors. He added brushstrokes, dots, squiggles and textures until every sheet looked different. Then he cut pieces from the painted papers. A green piece might become part of a caterpillar. A yellow shape might become the sun. A blue scrap might become an animal. He arranged and glued the pieces together to create the wonderfully textured pictures we recognise today.

Look closely at an Eric Carle illustration and you’ll see that a “green” caterpillar isn’t really just green at all. There might be yellow. Blue. Dark green. Light green. Brush marks. Lines. Patterns. Imperfections. That’s what makes his pictures feel so alive.

Why so many tiny creatures?

Eric created more than 70 picture books during his lifetime, and nature appears again and again. There’s:

• The Very Busy Spider.

• The Grouchy Ladybug.

• The Very Quiet Cricket.

• The Very Lonely Firefly.

• A House for Hermit Crab.

And, of course, one particularly hungry caterpillar.

Eric believed his fascination with small creatures went all the way back to those childhood walks with his father. His father taught him to stop and notice the little things. And Eric spent much of his life encouraging children to do the same.

More than just a caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar may be his most famous creation, but there are plenty of other Eric Carle books waiting to be discovered.

For little ones:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Written by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle, its repetition and colorful animals make it wonderful for joining in.

For budding artists:
The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse
A joyful reminder that art doesn’t always have to follow the rules.

For animal lovers:
From Head to Toe
Can you move like the animals?

For little explorers:
A House for Hermit Crab
A beautiful story about growing, changing and finding a new home.

For friendship:
Do You Want to Be My Friend?
One of Eric Carle’s own favourites.

And, naturally…

For hungry little humans:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

A museum for picture books

Eric Carle didn’t only want to create picture books. He wanted people to recognise the artwork inside them as art. So in 2002, Eric and his wife Barbara founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts. It’s a museum devoted to picture-book illustration — celebrating the artists whose work introduces so many children to art for the very first time. What a lovely thought!

Long before most children ever visit an art gallery, they have already held one in their hands.

Tiny Humans Try It: Make an Eric Carle-inspired collage

This one is wonderfully messy.

You’ll need:

• tissue paper
• paints
• paintbrushes
• scissors
• glue
• plain paper

First, paint your tissue paper. Don’t worry about making it neat. Add dots, stripes, swirls, fingerprints and different colors. Let everything dry. Then cut or tear the paper into shapes. Now comes the fun part.

Invent your own creature.

Perhaps it’s a purple elephant with orange ears. A stripy snail. A blue horse. Or an animal nobody has ever seen before. Glue the shapes together and give your creature a name. Then ask your little human:

Where does it live?

What does it eat?

What does it do all day?

And suddenly you haven’t just made a picture. You’ve started a story.

One last little thought…

Eric Carle died in 2021 at the age of 91, but the tiny creatures he created continue crawling, flying, swimming and fluttering across children’s bookshelves around the world. Perhaps that’s why his work has lasted. His books ask children to notice things.

A caterpillar.

A cricket.

A spider.

A firefly.

A color.

A shape.

A tiny hole in a page.

Because sometimes the smallest things are where the biggest stories begin.

Tiny Humans Read

At Tiny Humans Read, we believe discovering the story behind a book can make reading it even more magical.

Who Was…? is our series introducing little readers and their grown-ups to the authors, illustrators and extraordinary imaginations behind the books we love.

Who should we meet next?

Happy Reading!