There are some stories that you read to your children that stick in your mind. Many children’s books are short with simple story lines. If the child likes the book, you will read it enough times to memorize it. At least that is what happened in our family. With two parents who love books, our children got lots of reading time. We wanted to pass on our love of reading. We always read a story at bedtime, but there were lots of other times in the day when we read books. Our children had their own books from an early age and there was usually an adult who was willing to read every time they brought a book to us.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was not a new book when our children were born. It had been around for at least a dozen years when Isaac came along. But I don’t know if I had seen it before we got a copy to read to him when he was 3 or so. The book was fun, with holes in the pages as if the hungry caterpillar had eaten some of the book. For parents who are wondering how to start a discussion with their children with subjects such as Lepidoptera or metamorphosis, this book is the ticket. After all, the Royal Entomological Society has endorsed it!

The story line is the tale of the life cycle of a butterfly. In the opening scene, there is an egg on a leaf in the light of the moon. Out pops a caterpillar and he is hungry. On Monday he eats an apple, on Tuesday two pears, on Wednesday three plums, on Thursday four strawberries, and on Friday five oranges. So far, so good. We get the days of the week, numbers, and colors. I forgot to mention that the apple is red, the pears, green, the plums purple, the strawberries red and the oranges are. . . well orange.

Saturday is the surprise day. The caterpillar eats 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. That night he gets a stomachache. I wasn’t really aware that Caterpillars ate ice cream, but i like ice cream and ice cream seems like a good thing to eat when you are very hungry. Now if Carle had written the book so that the caterpillar had ice cream on the pie, that might have been anthropomorphizing, but a stand alone ice cream cone. Yum!

When Sunday comes around he eats a leaf and feels better. Then he forms a cocoon. OK, the author, Eric Carle, had me up to this point. But seriously, I thought that a cocoon is the silk casing that a moth caterpillar spins around it before it turns into a pupa. If he had said “chrysalis,” I would have been expecting a butterfly, but as it was, I’m thinking to myself, “Aha, there will be a moth on the next page.” But No, Carle uses poetic license to bring forth a butterfly. It sent me to the dictionary to check out my sources. Reading the dictionary always gets me distracted. Did you know that the Atlas Moth has a wingspan of up to 30 cm? That’s one big moth – about a foot across. It is so large that it is often mistaken for a small bird when flying. What is more, the Atlas Moth has a cocoon that looks like a piece of fruit hanging from a tree. And it has markings on its forewings that resemble a snake which scare away predators. Like many other moths, it does all of its eating as a larva. The adult moth has no mouth and cannot eat.

Anyway, the book seemed like just the right gift for our son for his birthday this year. He has a son who is one year old, and although not really quite old enough for the story in the book, as anyone who has talked to me knows, the child is very intelligent. Besides I bought the book for the father who is a librarian and should be able to figure out when is the right time to read the book to his son. In our house, the Constructive Playthings catalog is one of the most-read pieces of literature, so I ordered not just the book, but also a wonderful teaching prop set with a soft caterpillar and all of the foods. After stuffing the apple, pears, plums, strawberries, oranges, chocolate cake, ice-cream cone, pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, cupcake, watermelon slice and leaf into the caterpillar, the toy can be turned inside out and becomes a butterfly. Now what doting grandparent could avoid such a purchase even if the grandchild may be a bit young for the story? After all I bought it as a birthday gift for the father. And the father is a librarian. Librarians need all kinds of books. Besides I couldn’t quite justify buying it for myself. As my wife of nearly 39 years will tell you, I’m pretty good at buying things I want to have as gifts for others.

The book is a classic. In 2009, to celebrate the book’s 40th anniversary, Google displayed a search page based on the story.

Eric Carle went on to write other great books: The Very Quiet Cricket, The Mixed Up Chameleon, Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me and I See a Song. Come to think of it, I See a Song is a great Eric Carle book for a younger child. It doesn’t rely on words, just beautiful illustrations. There is a video of the book available on YouTube. But there is no puppet set to go with that book.

One of the great delights of this life is living long enough to become a grandpa. Society expects parents to be responsible and thoughtful and careful. If a parent gets to extravagant with spending and busy too many silly things, they are criticized. And when you are a parent you are working so hard to be responsible. After all you have to buy mundane things like groceries and diapers and clothes for a child who changes sizes every month. You’ve got house payments and you are trying to establish a career and find your way in life. Being a grandpa is far more relaxing and people don’t seem to mind if you are a bit quirky or extravagant or even silly.

So I was looking through the Creative Playthings Catalog. I’ve got a birthday coming up in a couple of months. I think I’ll drop a hint. The set of puppets with the Old Lady and finger puppets of all of the things she swallowed seems like something worth having. I already know the song, so I don’t need the book or the CD.

Life is good. And there are some stories that are worth telling over and over again.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.