Jon and Mac consider: worms, the generative tension between tidiness and chaos, why we feel affection for this caterpillar, brightness, science vs. poetry, a toy you can read, a book you can touch
Regarding the physical ways children interact with this book-the holes are too small for adult fingers to fit into but just right for toddlers. On the final page, the butterfly wings (not its body) are divided by the gutter so that when you open and close the book, it looks like the butterfly is flying. What an ending.
Hey Jon and Mac!! Associate Curator at The Eric Carle Museum here. We took out the 1980s version of the first spread—the little egg on the leaf—and with the help of our preparator and one of our registrars, identified more into Carle’s process. The tiny egg, in fact, a hole cut into the leaf!! It seems like Carle layered the leaf over the first collage layer (dark blue background). There’s even a small notch where the blade went! He then took white paint and “corrected” the egg to make it look slightly more egg-shaped.
He had such a tremendous amount of respect for the emotional world of children. That moment of leaving home and entering the wider world is a delicate and profound transition, which is also symbolically reflected in the metamorphosis at the end of the book- to grow, you often must leave something behind. This theme is the same reason I have a full emotional breakdown at the end of The House at Pooh Corner.
Ahh I remember the exact place and moment I discovered this book, on the windowsill of my first grade classroom. My whole world was transformed and the seeds of my love for color and design were planted!
I always thought of the "solid ground made of holes" as a runway, and another example of the man's absolute brilliance.
I also love how the tissue paper he used mimics the fragility of a butterfly's wings, and the raggedness of the holes is a result of that (and therefore a certain kind of earned beauty).
Short comment (rare for me), but only the biggest praise.
I copied/pasted so many lines from this post, but the image I couldn't stop thinking about, throughout my reading of it and after, was the inscription in the book, "For Mac, on his first birthday." What kind of foresight was necessary—on Mac's parents' part, on Mac's part—to keep a book from 1983? (I don't have any of the books I owned as a kid, perhaps because keeping them would have taken up many, many rooms, but still... All of the children's books I now own are "replacements," books purchased on eBay, Etsy, or in used book stores as an adult during moments of deep nostalgia.)
beautiful analysis as always. i recently saw an incredible drag routine set to the very hungry caterpillar and it felt like a magnificent reinterpretation of the joy and warmth of carle for the audience of former kids. also, i must say as a bug person, i always preferred his poetic use of cocoon.
I think this is one of my favourite books ever. I remember the delight and fascination of reading it as a child AND I got to enjoy reading it to my son, who loved it, and is now 18! I still remember his little worm like fingers (see what I did there!) exploring the holes. And I used to flap the book when the butterfly appeared. I also think the language is so poetic and so nice to read. You don’t get bored as a parent.
I actually worked as a novelty book designer for 20 years, and it’s endlessly fun to design books with novelties. My old boss used to say: “books you can play with, toys you can read.” And used to extol the virtues of “clever, simple” books, which I think is a pretty good rule of thumb. I left in-house publishing in 2019 to do the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, a fantastic MA! And now I illustrate and am working on my first author/illustrator book, which has diecut holes in. Man, I forgot how complicated they are to design. But a fun challenge. Thanks for another great post!
I always thought it was his nose. In any case, this was one of my favorite books to read with my children when they were very small. As a result, we have one full-size version, my children more or less devoured our first board book version, and the second board book is intact thanks to book tape. When they were very little, my twins called it the Hunny Butter book. (translation: Hungry Butterfly).
I wasn’t quite at dissertation level yet but I did do a massive deep dive into “Brown Bear”. Interlibary loaning all the early editions is challenging because the ISBN is the same generally on WorldCat but it’s so cool to see the process change especially as Carle got frustrated with the limits of the printers in getting the colors and textures right from his tissue paper https://open.substack.com/pub/childrenslitpilgrim/p/teacher-mother-monkey?r=2tvtiz&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
I was at a library yesterday and came across "The Hello, Goodbye Window." Despite reading a great deal of picture books over the years, this one was new to me, despite having won The Caldecott. Like The Hungry Caterpillar, it is a color riot. Perhaps in a future post you guys could cover lesser known Caldecott winners. My goal for the rest of the year is to read all of the Caldecott winners.
The ending is so bittersweet. I love how that melancholy at having 'lost' the caterpillar feeds right into the natural inclination young children have upon reaching the final page of a book, flipping it over and opening it up to begin again. It feels like Carle anticipated this and was comforted by the fact that even as we miss the caterpillar, we wouldn't need to for long.
Regarding the physical ways children interact with this book-the holes are too small for adult fingers to fit into but just right for toddlers. On the final page, the butterfly wings (not its body) are divided by the gutter so that when you open and close the book, it looks like the butterfly is flying. What an ending.
I lied--I already have another comment. But this one is a video, of the time he showed Mr. Rogers how he made his art. https://pbskids.org/videos/watch/giving-receiving-eric-carle-visit/34752 (the visit kicks off at 16:30).
Thanks for this! I kept catching myself grinning :) And when they acted out the book--so cute! I laughed out loud at the library desk.
I love how accessible he made everything. Like, oh you can just get this tissue paper anywhere. And signed his name in crayon. ♥
I agree; it's (somehow!) both a complete comfort-watch, YET also crazy inspiring. An all-too-rare combo, and I'll take it when I can!
Oh this is so cool, thank you for sharing!
Happy to! :)
Thanks for sharing!! That was lovely.
Aw, sure! As Liam Neeson said in that movie, "...I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills..."
VERY particular PBS-remembering nerdery skills, in this case. :)
Hey Jon and Mac!! Associate Curator at The Eric Carle Museum here. We took out the 1980s version of the first spread—the little egg on the leaf—and with the help of our preparator and one of our registrars, identified more into Carle’s process. The tiny egg, in fact, a hole cut into the leaf!! It seems like Carle layered the leaf over the first collage layer (dark blue background). There’s even a small notch where the blade went! He then took white paint and “corrected” the egg to make it look slightly more egg-shaped.
Thank you for formally putting The Chrysalis People on blast
He had such a tremendous amount of respect for the emotional world of children. That moment of leaving home and entering the wider world is a delicate and profound transition, which is also symbolically reflected in the metamorphosis at the end of the book- to grow, you often must leave something behind. This theme is the same reason I have a full emotional breakdown at the end of The House at Pooh Corner.
Ahh I remember the exact place and moment I discovered this book, on the windowsill of my first grade classroom. My whole world was transformed and the seeds of my love for color and design were planted!
I always thought of the "solid ground made of holes" as a runway, and another example of the man's absolute brilliance.
I also love how the tissue paper he used mimics the fragility of a butterfly's wings, and the raggedness of the holes is a result of that (and therefore a certain kind of earned beauty).
Short comment (rare for me), but only the biggest praise.
I copied/pasted so many lines from this post, but the image I couldn't stop thinking about, throughout my reading of it and after, was the inscription in the book, "For Mac, on his first birthday." What kind of foresight was necessary—on Mac's parents' part, on Mac's part—to keep a book from 1983? (I don't have any of the books I owned as a kid, perhaps because keeping them would have taken up many, many rooms, but still... All of the children's books I now own are "replacements," books purchased on eBay, Etsy, or in used book stores as an adult during moments of deep nostalgia.)
beautiful analysis as always. i recently saw an incredible drag routine set to the very hungry caterpillar and it felt like a magnificent reinterpretation of the joy and warmth of carle for the audience of former kids. also, i must say as a bug person, i always preferred his poetic use of cocoon.
I love this conversation and all I learned about Carle from it.
Also, I never in a million years would have guessed "nose." It's a book about a very hungry caterpillar. The caterpillar's mouth is important.
I think this is one of my favourite books ever. I remember the delight and fascination of reading it as a child AND I got to enjoy reading it to my son, who loved it, and is now 18! I still remember his little worm like fingers (see what I did there!) exploring the holes. And I used to flap the book when the butterfly appeared. I also think the language is so poetic and so nice to read. You don’t get bored as a parent.
I actually worked as a novelty book designer for 20 years, and it’s endlessly fun to design books with novelties. My old boss used to say: “books you can play with, toys you can read.” And used to extol the virtues of “clever, simple” books, which I think is a pretty good rule of thumb. I left in-house publishing in 2019 to do the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, a fantastic MA! And now I illustrate and am working on my first author/illustrator book, which has diecut holes in. Man, I forgot how complicated they are to design. But a fun challenge. Thanks for another great post!
I always thought it was his nose. In any case, this was one of my favorite books to read with my children when they were very small. As a result, we have one full-size version, my children more or less devoured our first board book version, and the second board book is intact thanks to book tape. When they were very little, my twins called it the Hunny Butter book. (translation: Hungry Butterfly).
I wasn’t quite at dissertation level yet but I did do a massive deep dive into “Brown Bear”. Interlibary loaning all the early editions is challenging because the ISBN is the same generally on WorldCat but it’s so cool to see the process change especially as Carle got frustrated with the limits of the printers in getting the colors and textures right from his tissue paper https://open.substack.com/pub/childrenslitpilgrim/p/teacher-mother-monkey?r=2tvtiz&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
THANK YOU. Just last week I was trying to find all of this information and was going back and forth all over the internet . This is perfect!
Thank you so much for your post! It was fascinating!
I was at a library yesterday and came across "The Hello, Goodbye Window." Despite reading a great deal of picture books over the years, this one was new to me, despite having won The Caldecott. Like The Hungry Caterpillar, it is a color riot. Perhaps in a future post you guys could cover lesser known Caldecott winners. My goal for the rest of the year is to read all of the Caldecott winners.
The ending is so bittersweet. I love how that melancholy at having 'lost' the caterpillar feeds right into the natural inclination young children have upon reaching the final page of a book, flipping it over and opening it up to begin again. It feels like Carle anticipated this and was comforted by the fact that even as we miss the caterpillar, we wouldn't need to for long.