Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Carle's famous caterpillar expresses its love. In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book's 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, "That's why... / I[heart]U." There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. "You are... / ...so sweet," proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it's munched in a strawberry; "...the cherry on my cake," it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; "...the apple of my eye," it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that "you make... / ...the sun shine brighter / ...the stars sparkle," and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 3/4 inches across when closed--probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic's charm. The melding of Carle's caterpillar with Robert Indiana's iconic LOVE on the book's cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature. Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

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