The Very Hungry Caterpillar was published by the World Publishing Company in 1969, and it has become one of the most recognizable and beloved children’s books in the world — translated into over seventy languages, with more than 55 million copies sold. A copy is purchased somewhere in the world roughly every thirty seconds.
The concept is deceptively simple. On Monday, a tiny caterpillar hatches from an egg and begins to eat. On Monday he eats through one apple. On Tuesday, two pears. On Wednesday, three plums. By Saturday he has eaten through a vast and improbable assortment of foods — chocolate cake, ice cream, a pickle, Swiss cheese, a slice of salami, a lollipop, a piece of cherry pie, a sausage, a cupcake, and a slice of watermelon — and has a stomachache. On Sunday he eats one nice green leaf, feels better, and builds a cocoon. Two weeks later he emerges as a beautiful butterfly.
The genius is in the physical design. Each day’s food is represented by a die-cut hole through which the caterpillar has eaten, and the holes get progressively larger as the week progresses. The pages for Monday through Friday are of different widths, creating a stepped effect that a child can feel and see. The final double-page spread of the butterfly — wings fully extended in Carle’s characteristic tissue-paper collage — is a visual climax that releases the tension of the caterpillar’s confinement.
Carle (1929–2021) developed his collage technique by painting thin tissue paper with acrylic colors and textures, then cutting and layering the painted papers to create images of extraordinary vibrancy and tactile richness. The caterpillar’s bright green body, the red and orange butterfly, and the foods (each rendered with the specificity of a grocery still life) have a warmth and immediacy that photographs or conventional illustrations cannot achieve.
The book teaches multiple things simultaneously — counting, days of the week, the sequence from caterpillar to butterfly, the difference between healthy and unhealthy food — without ever feeling didactic. The narrative is driven by appetite (an emotion every child understands), and the physical interaction (poking fingers through the holes) makes reading a sensory as well as an intellectual experience.
Collecting The Very Hungry Caterpillar
First edition (World Publishing Company, Cleveland/New York, 1969): Pictorial boards, die-cut pages. Originally printed in Japan because American printers could not handle the die-cutting.
Market values:
- True first edition (World Publishing), fine: $5,000–$20,000
- First Hamish Hamilton UK edition (1970): $1,000–$4,000
- Early Philomel reprints: $50–$200
- Signed copies: $500–$2,000
- Modern reprints: $5–$15
The World Publishing first is the great prize. Identification is tricky: look for the World Publishing Company imprint on the copyright page and the absence of ISBN. Later printings by Philomel (Putnam) are easily confused with the original.