THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. Congratulations to our winner, Ally!
Did you know The Very Hungry Caterpillar turned 40 this past March? And did you know that this beloved children’s book sells one copy every 30 seconds somewhere in the world and has been translated into more than 45 languages? This beautifully illustrated story has certainly become a classic in children’s literature.
Now, to celebrate its 40th birthday, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is available in a brand new pop-up book edition. Reading the pop-up edition, fans will experience the classic story in a completely new way, as the hungry and intrepid caterpillar literally pops off the page, crawling along branches, munching through food, and in one of the most memorable climaxes ever, emerging vibrantly as an extraordinary three-dimensional butterfly.
Whether the little ones in your life are already fans of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar or not, you will want to share this beautiful pop-up book with them. And we want to help one lucky member do just that. We have one copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar 40th Anniversary Pop-Up Book Edition, along with with a matching caterpillar totebag, adorned with Eric Carle’s original artwork to give away. To win†, all you have to do is enter a comment below with your treasured memories of The Very Hungry Caterpillar – either reading it to a special child in your life or memories of the book from when you were a child yourself.
You must be an urbanmoms.ca member to be eligible to win. Not a member? Join now, it’s easy and free.
Contest end date: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 5:00 p.m. EDT
†For contest details, click here.
My kids love this book, they always pick it out at the library, I have a 7 year old and a 4 year old and a baby due in the family tomorrow. Would love to have the book for my family! We have a reading room with chalk boards chairs and table off our stairs and that would be a great addition!!
Love this!
I know my grandkids who are both avid readers and book lovers would love to share this story with me!
I love this book and have just started reading it to my toddler. He is more interested in sticking his fingers through the holes than anything else, though. Imagine what he would do with a pop-up!
This is one of those books my kids always wanted me to read to them. When they were older it was passed down to younger relatives. Now that I have grandchildren I would love to have this book to share with them.
My son and daughter love this book! It’s one of the books we read over and over and over. Also it’s one of the first that my kiddos started “reading” themselves. Thanks for the giveaway. We’d love the pop up version — how fun!
I was never read from this book, or read to anyone about it. I did manage a bookstore, and had so many people come in to buy this for someone special in their life, and I would love to share this with my very special niece. She loves to turn around, back up to me and fall in my lap with a book.
It would be very nice to win this for my great nephew and introduce him to this wonderful story that my children loved.
this is a favorite at the center i work at, we have made a flannel story out of it.
The very hungry catepillar mini book is in my china cabinet, where it will stay!! This book brings back memories of reading to my little girl who is now 6 and can read chapter books by herself. At the age of 2 she had this book memorized! Here was this ‘baby’ who could recite word for word and leaf through the pages and point out all of the things that caterpillar ate and how many. The funniest thing about it was that although she could enunciate every word ever taught to her, she could not say caterpillar! she said ‘Atta-Pater’ every time! I secretly wished she wouldn’t learn to say it properly because it meant she was growing up! I have read this book to my other 2 babies since and I smile every time I say the word caterpillar because I remember that sweet little voice of a very intelligent child beaming as she said ‘Ata-Pater!”
The Very Hungry Caterpillar has always been a favourite of mine. I take great pleasure in sharing my love of reading and the caterpillar’s journey with my preschoolers.
This book has become a family favorite of my son since it was read in church one sunday morning during christmas i believe!
My daughter is graduating from high school this week and I still remember reading this book to her as a child. We even had to buy more than one copy because we wore out the first one. Of course when she became a BIG GIRL we also had to buy the soft cover instead of the board book version.
Every baby shower I go to I give a basket of books and The Very Hungry Catepillar is always a part of it.
I would love to win this for my son. I’m trying to slowly purchase all the great books I read as a child to create a book collection for him. Just seeing the cover brings back memories.
I love this book!!! I used to sign it out from the library over & over again when I was a child. I love Eric Carle’s stuff to this day for that reason. It was definitely my favorite!
My daughter’s JK class had a copy with reuseable stickers…great way to identify fruits, foods, caterpiller life cycle stages, and to count!
I was introduced to Eric Carle books while I was teaching English abroad. I must say that his books were always a hit with the children, a combination of the wonderful artwork and simple/repetitive phrases. I am now looking forward to sharing them with my own daughter. She will be 6 months next week and already seems to love the colourful images in the books.
I have been looking for this book to add to my collection for my 2 year old. Its a great book!
It is so awesome that this book is still so popular after 40 years. I would love to own the new pop-up version.
thanks
I had a very Hungry Caterpllar cupcake cake for my birthday last year!
Great books like this can stand the test of time!
This has been one of my favorites as a little girl and now my children love it as well!! You can’t get any better than Eric Carle!
I remember reading this book to my 4 year old daughter at the Library and thinking to myself that this book is really keeping my daughters interest ( and mine to). The book was nicely illustrated using bright colors which catches my attention.
Laura
This is a classic book that will never go out of style!! My version is quite tattered so a new copy would be great!!
“This new pop-up book sounds really cool” says my 7-year old daughter
I was told by a co-worker that I have to get this book for my son. My son is 21 months. I will wait until the 10th to go and purchase just in case I have a stroke of luck.
I’d love to have this to read to my 10 month old grandbaby.
What a cute book! I remember my dad reading it to my younger sisters.
Never heard of it but I think my Gret Grand daughter would enjoy it
I used to love reading this to my kids and would love now to read it to my Grandsons!
I loved this book when my 3 were small & now that I have an newly adoped niece, it would be lovely to present her with it & have her family start their own hungry caterpillar tradition 🙂
I remembered this book from when I was young, and recognized it right away while browsing kids books for my daughter when she was just about 6 months old. It’s a must have book for every home. We have a few Eric Carle books, and would love to have this one to add to our collection. My daughter’s 2nd birthday is coming up and this would be a great present for her.
I am sure my Granddaughter and I can spend many happy hours reading about the Very Hungry Caterpillar, sure hope we get this
My little granddaughter & grandson would love this!
This was the first book I read to my very first class. It happened to be a JK/SK split and they loved it. We then extended the learning to include making a paper booklet of each of the pages/fruit the caterpillar ate. 11 years of teaching and 3 kids later I make this the last bedtime book we read before the first day of school.
A true classic, one of my well-worn favorites to read at bedtime growing up. I would love to pass the tradition on to my kids!
This was one of my favourite books growing up! It was just one of those books you could read over and over again as a kid 🙂
Our three little book-lovers would love to see The Very Hungry Caterpillar in 3-D 🙂
We’re crossing our fingers over here that we win!
We received this book for their first-birthday and it became a fan favourite instantly. My memory is reading this book over and over and over and over… well, you get the picture!
I read this book to my daughter when she was a child. It will keep on being read from generation to generation.
I use to love this book when I was little, I even had a stuffed caterpillar to go with it. I just had a baby boy and I can’t wait for him to get to experience this book too. It’s a classic that every house should have.
All three of my children have enjoyed many Eric Carle books but this one in particular has been the source of many nights of laughter, learning and conversation about the details in this story.
From learning colours and what a caterpillar is, to the days of the week, numbers and food names, there’s all kinds of learning going on in this wonderful little package. And, who doesn’t love those Eric Carle illustrations! They’re so unique and great for big and little eyes to enjoy.
What a great contest! Please count me in!
I never read this as a child but have read it at least several dozen times to my daughter, who is now two. She hasn’t yet tried all of the foods the caterpillar devoured, but she can certainly say them! Lately she’s been walking around with a plate from her tea set and saying “cherry pie, cherry pie, cherry pie”. Perhaps we should add it to her menu. 🙂
I love to read this book with my children! We don’t have our own copy, but sometimes when we go to grandpa and grandma’s we get to read it; my children love it!
Oh what a classic! I remember my grade school teacher reading this to me. At the time I was sure there was a “real” caterpillar living in her book. I purchased the board book version for my daughter and she even has a matching stuffed caterpillar to go with hers. This reminds me just how much times have changed and yet how very much the same they sometimes are.
I was never exposed to this book as a child, but a friend of mine has it for her kids and they really love it. I’d love a copy for my kids too. My 2 year old loves to be read to and learns so much from books. This would be a great addition to our collection.
Happy Birthday to this book! What a clever idea for a book. It’s very appealing and interactive. I remember reading it to my cousin when she was little. Her eyes popped open when she saw the bright colours and the adorable caterpillar. This new pop-up, interactive edition sounds fabulous. I can’t wait to take a look at it.
I love Eric Carle. His books have a great rhythm for reading aloud and the images are wonderful. We have lots of favorites including The Greedy Python, THe Hungry Caterpillar, and The Lonely Firefly.
Eric Carle is definitely a huge hit in our home. We made the magic of the book come alive a few springs ago by growing our own butterflies right from larvae to butterfly. I will never forget the looks on all of their faces when the butterflies emerged from their chrysalises!
I have heard so many good things about this book…how delighted my kids would be to have me read this to them.
We just love The Very Hungry Caterpillar at our house! Our daughter is 2 and asks to read it every night. She knows it by heart and we’ll catch her reciting what he eats on Saturday! We love to talk about the different colours on each page, count along with him as he eats his way through the week and we especially like it when he finally becomes a beautiful butterfly! It was actually while reading it with her one night that we realized she could count as she pointed and counted her way through what he ate during the week! We truly think it is a special book.
My daughter loves books and will be starting school in September. The first time I remember this book was from being in kindergarten. I would love to be able to read this book before her teacher reads it to her.
Both my kids love this book! My daughter first brought it home from the school library when she was in SK. She loved it so much that I purchased our own copy from Scholastic and it came with a little caterpillar figure. It was so cute – she used to make the toy caterpillar crawl and eat along with the story as I was reading. Now my son has taken a real shine to this book. He always brings it to me or my husband and says, “Read!”. He loves when we pause and involve him in the story – by asking him what food the caterpillar is about to eat. One night, as I was helping my daughter with her homework, I heard his voice coming from his room. I went to peek, thinking he was playing with his toys … he was sitting on the floor reading The Hungry Caterpillar all by himself! Although, technically, it wasn’t reading, it was more memorization but I was still pretty impressed. He got the basics of the story right. What made it more funny was that some of his stuffies were sitting beside them as if he was reading to them, just like Mommy and Daddy would have read to him. I think both of them would love to have the pop-up version. Eric Carle writes classic stories that appeal to children of all ages. We have quite a collection of his books, and both my children enjoy them, my daughter is almost 7 and my son is 3 … I won’t say my age, lol, but I enjoy them as well.
I first encountered this book when I was babysitting as teenager and it was a favourite go-to to entertain kids before bed or to avert an impending meltdown. I found announcing “who wants to read the Hungry Caterpillar?” was a great way to redirect attention from any trouble in the making.
I recently dusted it off again to read to my niece and I was thrilled to find that her pre-school class was using this book as a ”learning to read tool and to teach children about the butterfly/caterpillar life cycle.
I now have my own daughter and cannot wait to start to read it to her and hopefully it will become my secret calming tool for her as well!
I can’t believe this book is 40 already. My first memory of this book is when my little sister was reading it (she’s turning 30 this month!). My next memory of this book is when I received it as a gift at my son’s baby shower 13 years ago. Then my youngest got a copy 3 years ago at his baby shower too. You can be sure that the tradition will be carried on as I will be giving a copy of this book to my little sister who is expecting a baby this winter!
This was always a favorite book of my children when they were small. I had almost completely forgotten about this one until I read the article. Here I thought I had every book known to man for my grandson lol! This is one I’ll have to add to his collection soon. He loves books, especially with bugs, animals or cars in them. He’ll get a kick out of this one!
oh my gosh! we love the very hungry caterpillar!!! as i child, i read the story & now both my son (almost 3) & daughter (20 mos) absolutely adore the book as well! i’ve lost count of how many times a day we read it!
I had never read this as a child and it was when my three year old got this as a gift that I had first heard of it and now it’s a perennial bedtime favourite.
It’s funny how little things imprint themselves in the memory of our children… one evening, my son was complaining of a stomach ache and while I was trying to suss out the cause, he said it was because he ate too much apples (which he hates) and hotdogs. When I asked him who fed him that (since that wasn’t what we had for dinner), he said, “Mommy, my tummy hurts, like in the caterpillar book!”
This was one of my favourite books when i was a child. Now that i read books to little kiddies myself i often feel embarrassed that my reading performance is nowhere near as sparkling as my librarian used to read. However, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is such a book that i never fear my audience will be let down. If i worry that my performance might be lacking, the striking creativity and exuberance of this book practically do all the work, so there is never a boring moment!
I’d love to win this classic kids book…a pop up version is even better than the original!
My son is 22 months old and loves books. I think it would be wonderful to be able to share this book with him.
I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar!!!!! It is one of my favourite Eric Carle books. I love reading it to my children, then using cut out caterpillars to retell the story. They think it is great!!!! It is a great story for beginning counting, sequencing and for explaining the life cycle of a caterpillar. It is already a family favourite and I know it will be for a long time to come.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a favorite story in our family. My oldest son, who is three, has it memorized, I think. He loves to help tell the story, joining in with the repetition of the caterpillar still being hungry. When the caterpillar has eaten too much and has a tummy ache, we have to check for tummy aches in the listener with lots of tickles…. It would be lovely to have a second copy to share with our younger twins, who are starting to become very interested in stories and tickles!
I had completely forgotten about this book from my childhood, until my daughter came home from school talking about how the teacher had read it to her and it was “the very best story EVER!”. As soon as she began talking about the story, I remembered reading it before bed with my parents. I am pretty sure that as I child I felt the same as my daughter… that it was the best story EVER!!!
This is a classic. My son liked to read about the desserts.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar was introduced to my family 8 years ago when my daughter was born. It was a gift from Ireland and although it was available here in Canada we had just never purcahsed it. My husband read the book many times to my daughter and every time we turned to the pages where the caterpillar eats through the food my daughter had to put her finger through each hole. We now have a son and would love the book for him as well (the original book is in very rough shape as you can imagine with those little fingers lol)
I absolutely love reading this book with my three year old and I can’t wait to start with our baby girl. My favourite memory was reading it one evening and right at the end our daughter became very distraught and said “Mommy where did the catepillar go! Did the butterfly eat him?”. Having been the millionth time we read it together I found it funny she realized finally there was no more catepillar.
So I tried to explain the whole process to her again, how the catepillar turns into a beautiful butterfly. She seemed impressed by my knowledge and went to sleep soon after.
The next day she came to me and said “mommy you are silly”. When I asked why she took me out to our sunroom and pointed at a catepilar on the window “see mommy the catepillar is still a catepillar. Silly mommy, catepillars are not butterflies”
Books like this will give generations to come memories like this.
I must be odd cause I have never heard of this book. Now I will have to find this book and read it to my 2 kids so we can enjoy getting to know the Caterpillar. Thanks. Wendy.
I would love to win this for my daughter as she is a big fan of books…She is two and she loves reading a lot already…I love this book too as it tells you about the days in a week, so counting is included as a perfect disguise here and it is very colorful!!! So many wonderful and vibrant colours that it made me almost go and eat the book:-)
I received a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a gift when I was pregnant with my 1st child, 10 years ago. It was a favorite of ours to cuddle and read together and it continued to be with my second child, 3 years later. I now have a brand new baby girl and would love to carry on the wonderful memories with the pop-up version of this great story. Pop-up books are always a ton of fun… so I don’t know who would enjoy this version more, her or I, LOL!
Congratulations to Eric Carle on 40 wonderful years!
I actually don’t recall the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar but I have a 3 year old son that I would like to share the story with.
This book has been a favourite in our family since it came out! I remember my older cousins talking about it, my aunts reading it to them, and my mom reading it to myself and my sister, and now we read it to our children.
Copies have been passed around in my circle of mothers, play groups, and libraries since we were old enough to read it ourselves, and now to other little ones in our lives, pretty sure I had a copy for babysitting too!
It’s such a wonderfully written book for children to enjoy, and adults love it.
I would love to have the pop up and bag tote to share with my children and save for others yet to come.
Thank you for the chance!
My mom used to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar-the German version to me when I was a child. It still have my book and read it to my boys in German but I have also bought the English version. My kids just love this book and it brings back fond memories of my childhood everytime I read it to them.
I purchased the Hungry Caterpillar board game for my 4 year old daughter for Christmas and she just loves it!