The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children's book written by Eric Carle, originally published in 1969. It is highly popular and has been praised for its use of easy-to-read words which makes it good for teaching young children to read. The story has been translated into over 50 languages and, as of 2005, a copy is sold roughly every 57 seconds. It was featured on Sesame Street in the early 1990s. It was also adapted for TV in 1993 by the U.K.'s Illuminated Film Company (producers of The Snowman) as part of an anthology called "The World of Eric Carle" that included four other Carle stories, namely: The Very Quiet Cricket, The Mixed Up Chameleon, Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me, and I See A Song. Narration on the UK DVD of the programmes entitles "The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other stories" is performed by Roger McGough and Juliet Stevenson, whilst - in the U.S. Walt Diney distributed version - the voices used are those of Brian Cummings and Linda Gary. The programmes were directed by Andrew Goff.

The book contains 225 words and large, colourful illustrations. It follows a caterpillar as it munches its way through a variety of edibles such as ice cream, salami, watermelon, one slice of swiss cheese, and a lollipop before it finally pupates and emerges as a butterfly. The story teaches the life cycle of a butterfly, counting to 5, the names of the days of the week, and about different types of food.

The original title of the book was to have been A Week with Willi Worm, featuring a bookworm named Willi. However, Carle's editor advised that a green worm would not make a very likable protagonist. There are rumours of the film rights having been sold for Ð'Ј1 million.[1]

In a 1999 survey conducted by Pizza Hut, George W. Bush listed the book among his favorite books from when he was growing up. This caused some controversy among media commentators since Bush was twenty-three when the book was first