The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Title: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Author/Illustrator: Eric Carle
Publisher: Philomel; 40 Pop Anv edition (March 10, 2009)
Readability Lexile: Preschool-1st Grade

Summary and target Audience:
A young caterpillar is perplexed with the constant need to fed himself.  This classic and interactive book not only leads us on the path of a young insect trying to find his way through food and days of the week but also keeps us entertained with the beautiful illustrations and fun story line. The audience for this book can be children from the ages of Preschool to First Grade.

Evaluation of the text:

This is a great story- children whom I have worked with love this book.  They like the idea of a caterpillar, an insect most have seen, can eat all of that food and turn into a beautiful butterfly.  Especially in the springtime when students are getting antsy for summer this book brings joy and happiness into the classroom.

The main character overcame a problem- although some do not interpret this book in this particular way, I do.  I like the idea of a character who doesn't understand why they are so hungry but feel the need to eat and eat and eat.  The transformation that occurs is beautiful and special.  Little ones especially who are growing in their young age and hungry all the time as well as very tired from all their growing can relate to thee feelings of never being full but needing to eat to make a transformation.

The author wanted us to see- I believe the author was not only helping students with counting which is why all of the food comes in series but also to see the transformation of a butterfly and to understand that although we do not always understand what is happening to our bodies we are all beautiful butterflies.

Literary Elements:

Climax:  In this story the caterpillar makes the transformation from small egg on a leaf to hungry caterpillar to cocoon to beautiful butterfly.  The series of events the insect goes through is a true climactic story.  The height of climax is on Saturday when he eats one of each tasty treat and the following day only eats part of a leaf.  What will happen next??

Third Person Limited Omniscient: 3rd person pronouns again, but perspective is limited to ONE character's thoughts, feelings, vantage point. Can not know anything in story other than what the one character
knows.  All we know as the audience is how the caterpillar is feeling about the events it is experiencing and how that affects it as an insect.  We do not hear anyone elses opinion on what is happening in the story when it first comes out of the egg for example.

Tone:  The overall tone of this work of literature is hopeful in my opinion.  Not only does the caterpillar make this transformation on its own but is able to overcome the feelings of having eaten too much with a smart decision to eat a few bites of leaf to then make the transformation into its cocoon. When the caterpillar emerges it is gorgeous and happy.

Illustrations:
The illustrations of this text are fantastic.  They are bright and colorful as well as interactive.  In each of the items of "food" the caterpillar consumes there is a small hole to illustrate it eating the item.  The pictures are not only fun to play with and read out loud but also relate very well to the short text which explains the amount of food the caterpillar ate as well as the day of the week which would be helpful for our younger readers.

Mini-lesson:
If using this in a Kindergarten classroom I would make a story book for the kids using the different foods that the caterpillar ate.  I would have choices of different items to represent the number and the day of the week or have them illustrate their own to demonstrate their knowledge of numbers.  The possibility with this text are endless!
Here is a great website I found with a ton of different lesson plans for all grades using this text:
http://www.madison.k12.sd.us/Gracevale/MDU-unit.htm