【Book Recommendations 好書推薦】The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

By Eric Carle

Recommended reading ages: 2-7 years
Lexile measure: AD460

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With its iconic illustrations, simple plot and engaging cutouts, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a classic, widely-loved children’s book that every toddler and kid will enjoy and learn from. The story tells of a caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly through a week of eating colourful fruits and sweets.

Why We Recommend

“On Monday he ate through one apple ... On Tuesday he ate through two pears ... On Wednesday he ate through three plums” — young readers will quickly catch on to the story’s simple patterns and follow along while learning the days of the week, the names of different fruits and counting practice. Young English learners will especially benefit from the repetition: once the straightforward premise of the story is grasped, new vocabulary can easily be understood and remembered within familiar patterns. The book’s staggered design visualizing what the caterpillar eats each day is also very useful in reinforcing the text when reading out loud. As children learn the patterns of the weekdays and numbers of fruit, they can participate in reading by predicting the next stage of the story, allowing interactive learning and lending them confidence in their acquired knowledge. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is therefore a fantastic book for reading out loud, involving children in the process of storytelling.
The book also teaches readers the life cycle of a butterfly in a simple way, and has even been endorsed by the Royal Entomological Society! Carle describes the caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a cocoon and finally a ‘beautiful butterfly’, and accompanies these stages by illustrations that children can connect to the real world. Furthermore, the caterpillar eats a variety of fruit throughout the week; however, on Saturday, it gets a stomachache after an extravaganza of cake, pie, sausage, cupcake and the like. In this way, the book implicitly introduces the value of healthy eating and teaches healthy choices and portions.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is thus a fantastic story for young readers and listeners to enjoy and participate in storytelling, scientific learning and health awareness. With its engaging design and recognizable patterns, the book will quickly become a favourite in the home!

Questions and Activities for Readers

1. Caterpillar necklace: make a colorful string caterpillar with dyed penne pasta and color paper! (Details and example on weareteachers.com/very-hungry-caterpillar-activities/)
2. Paper butterfly: paint a butterfly wing on half of an A4 paper. Then fold the paper over and see the paint transfer to create a beautiful butterfly!
3. Creating your own story: what animal are you telling the story about? What does it eat on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ...? What does it grow up into?

Looking for more?

​We will regularly share our recommendations on books, with a variety of topics, for different ages as well as reading levels. Follow our blogs to pick books for your kids and develop their lifelong reading habits as young as possible. You’d also join our camps of Literature, writing class, English Journalism, and other humanity camps like Ancient Greece/ Greek Myth for ages 5 to 7, and 8-12. There’s also Storytelling for younger ones, age 4-6.  
萊特豪斯的主題單元"好書推薦"，您可以根據孩子喜歡的主題、年紀或是閱讀程度，選擇合適的英文書籍閱讀。歡迎訂閱我們的部落格，或是追蹤我們的社群軟體，以獲得最新的好書推薦! 也可以加入我們的閱讀俱樂部、寫作營, 、英語寫作記者營，或其他像是古希臘文化/希臘故事營來培養孩子的寫作閱讀能力，另外，我們也有提供更小的4-6歲孩子英文聽故事的活動。

The article is written by Noa Shmueli

​About Noa
Graduated from Taipei European School, Noa is now majoring in English at Columbia University and Trinity College Dublin. An avid reader and writer, she was the Editor-in-Chief of the TES student magazine, PEAK, and have been editing textbooks and essays since 2016.

image source: https://www.eslite.com/product/1003149591209849