BLOG 5

BLOG5
SLIS 5420

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by
Eric Carle
Plot Summary: "In the light of the moon," an egg is laid. When the egg hatches a caterpillar emerges, and not just any caterpillar but a very hungry caterpillar. That caterpillar proceeds to eat through one apple, two pears, three plums, four strawberries, five oranges and then a variety of ten items. The caterpillar then eats through a leaf, forms a cocoon and becomes a butterfly.

My Impression: I've always liked Eric Carle books, because they are simple and well drawn. However, I never experienced and Eric Carle book until I read it to my daughter. I watched how the bright colorful pictures drew her in and invited her to participate. She marveled at the holes in the pages and ran her fingers over each one. I don't know if this is going to be the book that creates a life long love affair with the printed word for her, but it created a moment for she and I to share. Since we read the book together she has started to carry the book around. I doubt if it means as much to her as it does to me, but if a book can create a moment can it be bad?

Review:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Artist Eric Carle Author and Illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar
5 out of 5

What makes a children's book so popular that by 2009, the 40th anniversary of its publication, more than 29 million copies have been sold and it's been translated into more than 47 languages? In the case of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, it's the combination of wonderful illustrations, an entertaining story, and a unique book design. Carle's illustrations are created with collage techniques. He uses hand-painted papers, which he cuts, layers, and shapes to create his colorful artwork. The pages of the book vary in size, which is part of the fun.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar: The Story The story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a simple one that emphasizes numbers and days of the week. The caterpillar is not only very hungry, but he also has unusual tastes in food, ones that delight children. After popping out of an egg on Sunday, the very hungry caterpillar eats holes through the book's pages as he eats his way through a variety of foods, beginning with one apple on Monday and two pears on Tuesday and ending with five oranges on Friday and 10 different foods on Saturday (chocolate cake, ice cream, a pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, a lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, a cupcake, and watermelon).
Not surprisingly, the very hungry caterpillar ends up with a stomach ache. Fortunately, a serving of one green leaf helps. The now very fat caterpillar builds a cocoon. After staying in it for two weeks, he nibbles a hole in the cocoon and emerges a beautiful butterfly. For an entertaining explanation of why his caterpillar comes out of a cocoon rather than a chrysalis, see Eric Carle's Web site.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar: The Artwork and Design Eric Carle's colorful collage illustrations and the book's design add immensely to the book's appeal. Every page has a hole in it where the caterpillar eats through the food. The pages for the first five days are different sizes, corresponding with the number of pieces of food the caterpillar eats. The page for the day the caterpillar eats one apple is very small, a little bigger for the day it eats two pears, and full size for the day it eats five oranges.
Why Eric Carle Writes About Small Creatures As for the reason so many of his books are about small creatures, Eric Carle gives the following explanation:
When I was a small boy, my father would take me on walks across meadows and through woods....He'd tell me about the life cycles of this or that small creature....I think in my books I honor my father by writing about small living things. And in a way, I recapture those happy times.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar: My Recommendation The Very Hungry Caterpillar was originally published in 1969 and has become a classic. It is a good picture book to own or to take out of the library frequently. Children 2-5-years-old enjoy hearing the story again and again. Babies and toddlers particularly enjoy the board book edition. Happily, you will enjoy reading it to them again and again also. Add to the fun by making a story sack to go along with the book. Guide Sherri Osborn has directions for a variety of story sacks, including a story sack for The Very Hungry Caterpillar on the About.com: Family Crafts site.

Kennedy, Elizabeth [Review of The Very Hungry Caterpillar] Retrieved from http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/productreviews/fr/caterpillar.htm


The Very Hungry CaterpillarBy Eric Carle
Review by: Laura Wood
This book begins with a tiny egg lying on a leaf. When Sunday morning comes, the bright sun comes up and the caterpillar comes out of the egg. This is no ordinary caterpillar. This is a very hungry caterpillar. The caterpillar goes on a search for food. He eats one through one apple on Monday and two pears on Tuesday. On Wednesday he munches through three plums. Thursday he is still hungry so he finds four strawberries to eat, and nibbles on five oranges on Friday. On Saturday, he is still so very hungry, so he eats through a lot of unusual things for a caterpillar, things like salami, cherry pie, ice cream, and even watermelon. Saturday night he has a tummy ache. It is Sunday again, and the caterpillar is still hungry so instead of more junk food, he finds a nice green leaf to munch through. This makes his tummy feel much better, too. Because of all the things he eats, he isn’t little anymore. He is a big, fat caterpillar. The big caterpillar builds a cocoon around him and stays inside for a couple of weeks. Soon he is ready to get out of his house. The book concludes with the caterpillar nibbling his way out - and becoming a lovely butterfly. A great introductory science lesson for preschoolers
age 2 years and up.

Wood, Laura [Review of The Very Hungry Caterpillar] Retrieved from http://www.preschooleducation.com/br85.shtml

Suggestions for Library Use: The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a great book to read to a group of five and under. As a librarian you can invite one them up each time to count the fruit. Afterwards you could create a caterpillar with precut shapes.

The True Story of The Three Little Pigs
Written by
John Scieszka
Illustrated by
Lanes Smith

Plot Summary: The story of the Three Little Pigs told from the wolf's perspective. Apparently the Wolf was just going to borrow a cup of sugar, when he has a big sneeze blowing down a house of straw and then a house of sticks. The shock of course causes the pig to die of fright. what is the wolf supposed to do, waste food? The Wolf eats both pigs, but still needs that cup of sugar. So the Wolf goes to the house made of bricks, but not only will that pig not give him a cup of sugar, but he insults the Wolf's grandmother. The insult infuriates the wolf, who begins to sneeze uncontrollably. The police get called and a media sensation ensues. The wolf goes on trial, and you know the rest. However, the wolf never gets that cup of sugar.

My Impression: The story is allot of fun and can bring enjoyment to both children young and old. There is a great read out loud factor to this story, due to the fact that everyone knows how the story is going to play out. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is the Rashamon of children's picture books. All of that aside this is a great book it's fun, lite and breezy. It can be read to a group or one on one and the effect will be the same. I'll probably get railed for this, but I've never been a fan of Lane Smith's artwork. I find his artwork to be distracting, it pulls me out of the story. However, a great many people differ with me on this point. Regardless of how I feel about the artwork this is still a great book and worth buying for your personal library.

Reviews:

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
Book Summary
Reviewed by Peter Lewis
Don't believe everything you read! In this, the wolf's cockamamie version of the "Three Little Pigs," he goes to the first pig to borrow a cup of sugar and sneezes hard--blowing the house down is just an accident. He eats the pigs--sure, because wasting food is wrong--in this rollicking send-up of the classic fairy tale.
Is It Any Good?
5
This send-up of the well-known story makes fun of the tendency to clean up classic fairy tales to suit modern tastes, and the book is a good introduction to the playfulness of parody -- as well as how a seemingly carefree laugh-along can coexist with deeper ideas. The wolf's wisecracking set off gales of laughter from a library full of 6-year-olds, but there's also a life lesson being taught: Namely, don't be so quick to judge behavior.
Writer Jon Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith might well have been separated at birth, so perfectly do they fill any holes that may be missing from either text or artwork. Scieszka's verbal pizzazz, combined with Smith's expressionist paintings, leave no gaps to be filled.

Lewis, Peter [Review of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs] retrieved from
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/True-Story-3-Little.html/details

Book reviews: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
by Moe Zilla

It was the first collaboration Jon Scieszka did with Lane Smith, and it was a huge success. (The writer-illustrator team would later team up on six more books according to Wikipedia). Smith's imaginative drawings are the perfect complement to Scieszka's stories, which include parodies and twists on familiar fairy tales. And it was in 1989 that Sciezska delivered "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs."
"I don't know how this whole Big Bad Wolf thing got started," the narrator explains, "but it's all wrong." It turns out it's the wolf himself, who seems surprisingly genuinely unthreatening. (He wears harmless spectacles, and his name is Alexander.) "[N]obody has ever heard MY side of the story," the wolf complains. And then he describes the time he'd innocently visited his next-door neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar.Now unfortunately his neighbor - a pig - has a lot of silly ideas. ("Can you believe it? I mean who in his right mind would build a house of straw...") And even more unfortunately, the wolf has a cold, which makes him huff and snuff...and sneeze. "And you know what? That whole darn straw house fell down." See? It was all an innocent misunderstanding!Yes, he ate the little pig - but it was already dead. ("Think of it as a big cheeseburger just lying there," the wolf explains.) And he still needed a cup of sugar, which required a visit to the neighbor one house down. "He was a little smarter, but not much. He had built his house of sticks..."Smith's art adds a lot to the book, because the tale is already so familiar. His odd color schemes and flat perspective give the story an appropriate oddness. And some drawings have an abstract feeling, resembling stark and surprising collages. On the first page of the book, the E in "Everybody" is made out of bricks - with straw on the bottom and twigs on top.Everybody thinks they know the pigs' story, but in Scieszka's version, the wolf is the hero. "Now you know food will spoil if you just leave it out in the open," the wolf explains innocently. And he'd discovered the second pig dead - after an unfortunate sneeze by his house of sticks. There was only one thing to do...but the wolf still needs that cup of sugar. And the third pig rudely refuses to give it to him, provoking a round of sneezing...right when "the cops drove up." And it's in the final drawing that Smith reveals why the wolf's shirt sleeves was covered with stripes.

Zilla, Moe [Review of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs] Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/1508459-funny-jon-scieszka-book-with-lane-smith-about-the-wolf-from-the-three-little-pigs

Suggestions for Library Use: This is a good book for children up to the Second Grade. when it is read it would be fun to read a traditional version of the story, James Marshall's version perhaps. Reading the two versions of this story creates an opportunity to discuss perspectives and create a dialog between the children. Reading the books would also be a good way to illustrate the idea of characters.