Hacker News Books

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a lovely book, but I do wish it didn't have the caterpillar enter a cocoon and come out as a butterfly. It's caused a lot of confusion over the years (only moths make a cocoon, butterflies make a chrysalis).

Interesting. My oldest also loves all three of these books, while his younger brother loves "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

They're great books to make funny sounds with. They're also great for asking our kids questions about the stories.

Longevity, yes:

'The Very Hungry Caterpillar,' a popular children's book has sold 29 million copies, and according to Newsweek, does $50 million in licensing deals a year. (yes, year)

http://www.newsweek.com/id/189230

I loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a kid, and now read it to my 6 month old before bed. He loves it too, smiling while playing with the little mini pages and me poking his finger into the holes as the caterpillar chomps through his feast. Precious moments.

RIP Eric Carle

Good Night Moon - 187 times

The Cat In The Hat - 200 times

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - 85 times

But seriously, im on my third re-read of Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, In my opinion its the best book about leadership ever written.

What a relief that HP at least beat The Very Hungry Caterpillar! But an important point is when the book was published. I think HP and other popular books would probably climb the ranks for a few years to come.

+1. 'Eric Carle, writer and illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has died' is shorter than the current title so it should work.

I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to my toddler. It really resonates with her because of all the fun pictures of food!

What strikes me about a lot of children's book is that they often talk about metamorphosis - which is a strange and beautiful concept. But we rarely encounter it in real life, other than figuratively.

I suppose regarding children's books I should have tempered that with "all children's books". There's a category of children's book that provides a tactile experience that ebooks/apps cannot match (e.g., "The Very Hungry Caterpillar")

(FWIW, you can get a "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" app, but it's a different experience, being an interactive toy. Not worse, not better, just different. It appears to nicely complement, not replace, the book.)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is probably the single most important kids book in my extended family. It was the first book I got as a kid due to my dad loving it, and Mum sewed me a little toy which was my favourite toy for many years.

It the became a “thing” where it was the first book we got for every kid born in my extended family, and now that I have my own kids 40+ years later it was the first I got for them too. They both know it by rote, have the toys, had the bed sheets, everything. They’re now in the early years of school and still absolutely love the story and have the posters in their rooms despite them being “old” for it.

RIP Eric. You’ve left an amazing mark on the world.

Like many others here, I spent several years of my life with his books. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is obviously his best known classic, but in our house "Dream Snow" was the most popular.

https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Snow-Eric-Carle/dp/0399235795/

It's a great Christmas/Winter book. Definitely get the bigger, hardcover version. The illustrations are great and at the end of the story your kid will get to push a button and make some peaceful musical notes play.

The books have been a staple in our household as well, and I echo other people is saying that this a loss of a true talent. One thing I thought I'd add to the conversation is that a series of very well done short films were made based on some of his books. If your little ones are begging for some screen time and you're wary of what youtube will unleash on them, I found these to be a really fun series that keep to his unique and beautiful aesthetic, and at least my kids loved to watch The Very Hungry Caterpillar on the screen and then read it together afterwards, and maybe your children will feel the same!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY

I See a Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPpkaldk84Y

Papa, Please Get The Moon for Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGqAw7UM6qo

The Very Quiet Cricket https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGqAw7UM6qo

The Mixed Up Chameleon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrmZeXf7ScU

"In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf..."

ranked by check outs p.a.:

rank, title, total check outs, date of publication, check outs p.a.

1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 231,022 1998 10501

2 The Snowy Day 485,583 1962 8372

3 Where the Wild Things Are 436,016 1963 7649

4 The Cat in the Hat 469,650 1957 7455

5 To Kill a Mockingbird 422,912 1962 7292

6 1984 441,770 1949 6222

7 Charlotte's Web 337,948 1952 4970

8 Fahrenheit 451 316,404 1953 4722

9 The Very Hungry Caterpillar 189,550 1969 3717

10 How to Win Friends and Influence People 284,524 1936 3387

Data from https://125.nypl.org/125/topcheckouts which mentions other factors, such as shorter books having higher turnover.

I'm Swedish, my wife is from Belgium and introduced me to Eric Carle when she bought several of his books for our children. Before that I had never read any of his books and only recognised the title of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Looking a bit I can't find any of his books in Swedish and neither he nor the caterpillar seem to have a Swedish wiki page.

- Good Night, Moon

- The Runaway Bunny

- Harold and the Purple Crayon

- Grandfather Twilight (for slightly older children)

- Sandra Boynton books

- Max's Breakfast (and other books)

- I Read Signs (Tana Hoban; other books by her also quite good)

- Go! Go! Go! Stop! (Cherise Mericle Harper)

- Little Pea (Amy Krouse Rosenthal)

- Trucks, My Car (and other Byron Barton books)

- The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle; some other books by this author are also good)

- Roadwork (Sally Sutton; also in the same vein by the illustrator Brian Lovelock: Demolition, Flight of the Honey Bee, The Rain Train).

Many others come to mind, but these are well-loved.

Not to downplay the cultural importance of The Very Hungry Caterpillar – but can I suggest another one of Eric Carle's books?

It's called "Pancakes, Pancakes!" In it, the protagonist wants to eat some pancakes – but he discovers that in order to do so, he needs to harvest and mill some wheat, milk a cow and churn some butter, and so forth.

I read this to my kids when they were little, and it struck me as actually a pretty good lesson about how much work goes on outside of our house, in order to make Saturday Pancakes possible. But it's not presented in a preachy way at all – more of an excited way, like "isn't it interesting how much background work goes into Saturday Pancakes?".

I credit that book with getting my kids interested in food/cooking and much more than that as well – the seed of thinking about what has to happen for an Amazon box to show up at your door with a particular gizmo.

So I'll pour out some pancake batter for Eric Carle on Saturday morning.

Some of the favourites in our house:

Hooray for Fish

The Hobyahs

Don't Wake Up the Tiger

Katinka's Tail

All the Harry the Dog books

Dumbo's African Adventure

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

A New House for Mouse

Many of the Disney books - they can be very hit and miss but some have been quite popular, like the Dumbo book above, Beauty and the Beast, Winnie the Poeh, and a few others.

Reading to our kids at bedtime is one of my favourite times too :)

1. The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats)

2. The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss)

3. 1984 (George Orwell)

4. Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak)

5. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

6. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)

7. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

8. How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)

9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)

10. The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle)