Saturday 21 November 2015

What is up with that Caterpillar?

To be honest I could never understand why the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle was so popular. I suppose it may be because I have never read it before in its entirety. So we shall delve into a blow by blow account of what has been called 'The Greatest Children's Book of All Time'* 


Let's begin. (SPOILER ALERT)

Cover: Hmm, looks promising, it is quite an iconic cover and I enjoy the contrast of green and red
Pg. 1 Aww, for his sister Christa, how sweet. Do those dots look like gumballs to anyone else?
Pg.2 In the space of three pages I have been informed of the book's title twice. 
Pg. 3 The alliteration is lovely! Although I am slightly dissapointed that it doesn't rhyme. 
Pg.4 I have noticed a smiling face in the moon which I quite enjoy.
Pg. 5 It seems somewhat unrealistic for the caterpillar to 'pop!' out of the egg, but it does somewhat reinforce the thing about the gumballs before.  
Pg.6 The sun is quite a relaxed figure. Little do they know it's 5,600 Celsius on the surface and 15,000,000 Celsius at its center, probably making it hard to chill out. 
Pg. 7 I also enjoy that the caterpillar can walk on its back hind legs.
Pg. 8 CRISIS! in that this is where the pages become the half page things (I'll count them as one page even though they are double sided) and also I am feeling an affinity to the caterpillar because I am getting quite hungry myself. Monday is an apple. Good choice,good choice
Pg. 9 Perhaps he wouldn't be so hungry if her ate the entire pear instead of only through two 
Pg. 10 I must say that I do like the collage effect of the illustrations, it pleasantly reminds me of my kindergarten days
Pg. 11 The strawberries are adorable (I didn't even know that you could have adorable fruit). His hunger is becoming a real problem.
Pg. 12 From a logical point of view, eating through oranges would be really painful and acidic. Did you know that your stomach has enough acid in it to burn a hole in a rug. I don't know if that's true because it came from a questionable education video made in the 90s. 
Pg. 13 Now he has changed from fruit which is bound to be a bad idea and I have an urge to flip to the end. BUT I CAN'T RUIN THE STORY!! I like how he eats a pickle, it's just very random - especially for a kids books. And salami! WWtWHOS (What would the World Health Organisation say?
Pg. 14 Also, it has resumed normal pages. OH MY GOODNESS THE CATERPILLAR HAS A STOMACHACHE. It looks so sad. :(
Pg. 15 It's nice how there's holes in the book. Adds a bit of texture and excitement. 
Pg.16 Good work, eat some leaves like you're supposed to. 

Pg. 17 He is very fat now. His legs are strangely distributed. 

Pg. 18 I feel like a lot of action has happened on this page. Built a house AND stayed inside AND nibbled a way out
Pg. 19 I am actually taken aback by his transformation. He is very colour and skinny, lost a lot of weight too. So does the fat become his wings or not??
Back Page THERE IS NO BLURB WHAT IS THIS?!


I'm sorry if I've ruined the story for you.
Happy Reading!

* I couldn't actually find a source for this quote but I'm sure someone has said it. 

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