Happy birthday to The Very Hungry Caterpillar

‘But he was still hungry’: The Very Hungry Caterpillar celebrates his 45th birthday

Ross McGuinness Thursday 20 Mar 2014 Metro

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is 45 years old (Picture: Eric Carle)

It is the most celebrated junk food binge in literary history.
And it sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday: eating your way through chocolate cake, ice-cream, a pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, a lollipop, cherry pie, a sausage, a cupcake and a slice of watermelon.

All this was on the menu in the space of 24 hours for the unlikely hero of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, one of the world’s best loved children’s books. But after all that greasy grub, why did he need to munch on some watermelon at the end?

Those familiar with the book will know that eating a hole through all that food left the very hungry caterpillar with something of a sore tummy, which he cures by chowing down on a healthier leaf the next day. And then… something magical happens, but let’s not spoil it for those who haven’t yet read the book.

There are two types of people in this world – those who have read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and those who are about to read it. More than 37m copies have been sold since it was published in 1969 – someone somewhere buys one every minute.

Written and illustrated by American author Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a reading rite of passage, gobbled up by children thrilled at such a colourful experience, who pass it on to their own kids several years later. The book’s varying page sizes and its pierced pieces of vibrant fruit – perfect for tiny fingers to wriggle through – make it wonderfully unique. There really is no other book quite like it.



Today it celebrates its 45th birthday – March 20 has become officially known as The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day as it marks the onset of spring. A survey to mark the birthday, conducted by The World of Eric Carle product line, asked 2,000 parents and children in Britain what foods they would choose for the caterpillar to eat if the book was rewritten. The results, published today, included suggestions from burgers to broccoli. Two thirds of children wanted to see the caterpillar eat a banana, while one in three dads thought he should branch out a bit and try sushi.
The inspiration for The Very Hungry Caterpillar sprang from Carle’s love of nature and the books he read as a child after he moved from New York to Germany at the age of six.

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