Eric Carle

One of my favorite children's authors and illustrators is Eric Carle. His incredible colorful art work is charming. THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR is the one that I vividly remember. For a number of years I had my fifth grade kids do author reports. Each child selected an author and read two or three books written by that author. They had to compare and contrast illustrations and the stories and write a report. Their culminating activity was to write a letter to the author to describe the best features of the books.


Eric Carle always wrote a personal letter to the all of my students and would include an illustration for them. Parents told me that they framed them because they were so precious. 


This fascinating video is about Eric Carle's newest book, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. He describes what inspired him to write it and demonstrates how he creates his artwork. Take a few minutes to sit back, relax and enjoy this delightful author as he also explains how children relate to art.

The Eric Carle 40,000 square foot Museum is in Amherst, Massachusetts. Watching this video was magical. Eric has not only his own art work on display but he also has a collection of out of print picture books in a picture book library for kids and adults. Free art lessons are given and you'll see kids working with tissue paper to create their own colorful animals. As seen below, there's a theater where picture books are acted out in skits. This is truly a museum to see!