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Shampave Kandiah

Alstot

Child Adolescent Literature Period 3

10 September 2019

The Very Hungry Caterpillar​ Book Review

In the children’s book ​The Very Hungry Caterpillar,​ author Eric Carle utilizes

symbolism, imagery, repetition, and tone to depict the valuable theme of transformation from a

child to an adult and the importance of being able to sustain oneself throughout their lives. Carle

begins the tale with a caterpillar that had just come out of its egg and was so hungry that he ate

his way through the days of the week, eventually transforming into a vibrant butterfly. Because

of his extreme hunger, the caterpillar decided to eat through “one piece of chocolate cake, one

ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece

of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon,” due to his ingestion of so

many unhealthy items, “that night he had a stomach ache!” (Carle 7-8) . Carle purposefully

symbolises a caterpillar as a child, both from birth to being able to sustain themselves through

the entirety of their lives, focusing on the behavior and consequence involved. An instance of

this behavior and consequence is shown when the caterpillar decides after eating fruits

throughout the first five days of the week, to eat and extensive amount of junk food on the

weekends, paralleling typical childlike behaviors. Upon realizing that the caterpillar had induced

a stomach ache due to eating a vast amount of unhealthy meals, the child’s cognitive

developmental domain is put to work. The child’s cognitive developmental domain, according to

The Value of Children’s Literature Luther College Oneota Reading Journal​ by Martha Crippen​,
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is the part of the brain that is used when children “respond to literature and develop their own

opinions about the topic,” and it’s strengthened due to the “encourage[ment] deeper thought

about literature.” (Crippen) As the caterpillar realizes and suffers through his mistake, the

cognitive developmental domain is utilized and challenged as the child subconsciously realizes

that if they too decide to eat fast food or processed food that they may also prompt a stomach

ache like the caterpillar did.

Carle explains in the next page that a quick fix to the stomach ache is eating a healthy

meal, which he shows by the caterpillar having an emotion of satisfaction on his face upon eating

a leaf. Carle portrays the healthier food in an appealing manner by incorporating imagery. The

imagery is shown as the caterpillar eats his way through the days of the week, illustrated through

holes through each of the fruits he eats in the first five days of the week. This appeals to the child

as it is interactive and concrete, which is vital to their growth and development. Carle also

employs various bright colors on each page; rather than making the illustrations a solitary color,

Carle experiments with different variations of the same color so children can see and create

connections to the colors they see in real life and be more accustomed to the color wheel as they

begin to draw and color in pictures in a school environment. The author also incorporates

repetition as it makes the child pay attention to pattern. Carle uses numbers to explain that the

caterpillar was still hungry after one apple on Monday, two pears on Tuesday, three pears on

Wednesday and so on. This is important for the child’s intellectual development due to patterns

being apparent in subjects of the educational program, such as mathematics, social science, and

language arts; exposing children to patterns and getting them accustomed to discovering them

will assist them later in life. Carle organizes the text so that the imagery, like the holes referred to
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priorly, take up more of the page and there is only one to two sentences per page, so that child

doesn’t get overwhelmed with a multitude of sentences and can pinpoint the patterns in the text

as well as simulate their senses. In these sentences, Carle primarily applies exclamation points

for punctuation to indicate to the parent reading aloud to exhibit emotion, thus encouraging the

child’s enjoyment of the reading and establishing positive feelings to be associated with reading .

Thus, due to Eric Carle cultivating a story fit for ages three to eight that assists a child

throughout each of the skills vital for their maturing, such as detecting patterns and strengthening

their cognitive developmental domain, he not only educates them about the life of a caterpillar,

but also includes the consequences of one’s behavior, which aids them into choosing healthier

choices for their wellbeing and essentially becoming the “butterfly” or adult the child aspires to

be.