The Very Grouchy Ladybug The Very Grouchy Ladybug is a hand-painted story. As the grouchy ladybug continues to meet bigger and bigger bugs and animals the pages get wider and wider. This is very unique to other stories which usually have the same size of pages. This style is the same as in The Very Hungry Ladybug. As the pages get bigger the bugs/animals on each page also get bigger. At the very end the biggest animal takes up the whole story and there is no room for any words. The Grouchy Ladybug continues to want to fight these large creatures. This is a problem and it is solved in the end, which is very much in the normal Eric Carle style. This book was published in 1977. |
The Very Lonely Firefly This story is different from Eric Carle's picture books because there are people in this book. There is no white space in this book. All the spaces are taken up by large drawings of people and animals that the firefly runs into. There is a firefly on each page so your eyes are drawn to trying to find the firefly each time. The paintings are done in the hand-painted style. There is a firefly who flies around trying to find other fireflies. He sees many different bright objects, but none of them are fireflies. This book was published in 1995. This was one of this newer books so I see a style change in adding people to his book. |
The Very Hungry Caterpillar The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a hand-painted book about a caterpillar who continues to eat. It was published in 1969. This story is all about the changes that the caterpillar goes through to become something else in the end. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is unique in the size of the pages. The pages in this story are in smaller sections to begin with to show that the caterpillar is only eating a little bit. As he continues to eat more and more, the pages continues to get bigger and bigger until they are finally full size. This story is similar to Carle's other story The Very Grouchy Ladybug in his use of smaller pages that get bigger and bigger. Eric Carle writes a lot of stories about insects so this is typical of his work |
The Very Quiet Cricket The Very Quiet Cricket was published in 1980. The pictures are in Eric Carle's unique hand-painted style. The little cricket is very small on the page compared to the other bugs he runs into. Their pictures take up one whole page. There are no borders on the pages showing that the bugs are not meant to be contained. The cricket continues to run into to these bigger animals that try to communicate with him, but he is unable to make a sound. There is a turning point at the end of the story, and the pictures match this change. This book is similar to Carle's style in that there is a problem that is fixed at the end. |
Do You Want to be my Friend? This story is told almost entirely through pictures. The only words exist on the first page, and they are spoken by a mouse who is looking for a friend. On the right side of each page is an animal tail, and as the reader turns the page, they see which animal is being represented. The mouse approaches a variety of animals until he eventually finds someone who wants to be his friend. Eric Carle uses a unique approach to tell this story, as the reader is left to decipher only pictures with no accompanying text. Very young readers can use this story to understand how stories are told from page to page; they can follow the tails across the pages and learn how to turn each page to continue the story. |
A House for Hermit Crab Eric Carle includes a poem on the dedication page of this story that explains what a hermit crab is and does. This introduces the creature to readers about to begin the story. All of the beautiful pictures in this story are full bleed and cover the pages with images of animals and scenes from under the water. On the very first page of the story, hermit crab is drawn very small and appears upset to be losing his shell. Throughout the book he is drawn slightly bigger, but always wearing his shell. By the very last page of the book, hermit crab is very big and grown and has left his shell behind. He is shown waving goodbye to the home that he once knew. |
10 Little Rubber Ducks This title page for this story includes an outline of each duck, numbered from one to ten. As the ducks are on the ship to be delivered to faraway countries, they fall into the water. After this, a page is dedicated to each duck, counting them one by one and telling what creatures they encounter in the water. We are introduced to animals from very different climates (a polar bear and a flamingo, for example) and the background of their pictures match the corresponding cold winter snow and the warmer sunny weather. The tenth rubber duck actually finds a family of live ducks and falls into their line. The book ends with each real duck quacking and a button for readers to press to make rubber duck squeak when it’s his turn. |
The Very Busy Spider The design of this book allows readers to actually feel the silk thread that the spider is using to make her web. This thread begins on the title page and continues until spider has made a large extravagant web. Each page layout is the same throughout the book. On the left page, a different animal approaches spider while spider works on his web on the right page. With each passing page, spider’s web grows. By the end, it is nighttime and an owl approaches spider, only to find that spider has fallen asleep. On each page, we see a fly buzzing around each animal. Finally, toward the end of the story, spider catches the fly in her web. |
From Head to Toe This story is illustrated in the same Eric Carle style that we have seen in all of is books. It was published in 2007, so that explains some of the differences that we see in these pictures. From Head to Toe shows an animal and a child on each page. There is no background like in his other books. He also painted pictures of humans on every page and stepped away from his bugs. The story is still written in a simple form which makes it easy for children to understand. The book is about an animal doing an action and then the child repeating the action. This is also different from Carle's early books where there is a problem and a solution to follow. |
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? This story is very fast paced and has a great rhythm. Many teachers choose to sing it with their students because it flows so well and is repetitive enough for even young students to remember. Because it moves so fast, it can be difficult to slow the pace down for a read aloud. Rather than reading one page at a time, the two pages must be read together before stopping so that the sentence does not break. This is different than a traditional story format and can be a helpful transition into reading poetry, where students will not stop at each line. |