The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar should be on every single child's bookshelf. It appeals to both Dexter at 3 months old and Felix at 21 months old. Dexter loves to look at the bright colours and simple bold pictures. Eric Carle's artwork is absolutely beautiful. Felix loves to name everything and to stick his fingers through the small holes in the pages.

The book follows a caterpillar from birth as he eats his was through the pages, from one apple through cheese, a lollipop and even watermelon. There are so many learning opportunities with this book. It provides a child's first science lesson, seeing the metamorphosis from an egg to a caterpillar to a butterfly. We are also introduced to an array of different foods. At the same time we are presented with the days of the week and numbers from 1 to 5. At the end of the book there is the opportunity to talk about the rainbow of colours in the butterfly's wings; red, purple, blue, green, yellow and orange.

I bought this book for Felix when he was approximately 6 months old and we have been reading it almost daily since then. His first birthday party had a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and neither he not I are sick of the book yet. I can recite the book word for word but I still enjoy curling up and reading it to both boys.

Do any of you already have this book? I'd love to hear what your children think of it, if they love it as much as mine do.

If you live in North America I would recommend buying the book from Amazon.com, however if you live elsewhere in the world The Book Depository is the place to go for all your books. They offer free shipping on all books and at the moment have a 10% off sale.