The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a perennial favourite with children and adults alike. Its imaginative illustration and clever cut-out detail charts the progress of a very hungry caterpillar as he eats his way through the week.

This board book edition of what is surely a classic picture book is glossy, sturdy and ideal for curious little hands to get to grips with. (Ages 9 months to 2 years)--Susan Harrison

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Cut price, cut size! - Rated
My wife works as a nursery manager, so she recommended this nook for our 19 month old daughter. Babies and toddlers are supposed to be able to put their fingers through the holes in the pages like a wiggly caterpillar poking through an apple, but not only have they cut the price, they have also cut the size down to a miserly 18cm x 12cm.

I returned the book to Amazon and have ordered a 29cm x 20cm version elsewhere.

Colourful pictures and a great story - Rated
My daughter just loves this book, shouting 'pop' as the caterpillar emerges from its egg and 'ooooooow' at the beautiful butterfly. She also loves poking her fingers through the holes left by the hungry caterpillar, add in the chunky pages which make this book almost indestructible and this has been a real winner.

Not that fantastic - Rated
After hearing so much about this book, I finally added it to the children's library. It's an ok story about a caterpillar who eats all sorts of food until he turns into a butterfly. I found the illustrations a little boring, and the holes did not generate the expected excitement. I could not help wondering if the important lesson was the life-cycle of a butterfly or a caution not to eat too much in case you get a stomach-ache. It's a good book but did not come to the standard of "Dear Zoo" or "We are going on a bear hunt".

A beautiful book - Rated
This has quickly become a bedtime favourite. At 12 months my son can't follow a long story, but with this book he really loves turning the pages (as this is easy to do) and spends ages exploring the holes and gets quite excited by the big reveal at the end! The illustrations are so simple but incredibly beautiful making it a real pleasure to read.

All time favourite - Rated
We started reading this when our son was a day old, and it was his favourite up until almost a year. Appealing pictures, holes to stick little fingers through and the different shaped pages were really easy for our little one to turn himself (normally a problem with board books).

Highly recommended!