On Monday, May 7th many people will be celebrating “Very Hungry Caterpillar Day” to commemorate the beloved little book by Eric Carle that just turned 49(!) years old. We, in the Read Lab love this story, too, but not just the version read by the creator himself…
Eric Carle reads “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”
…but also the many renditions parents do as they read this story (sometimes over and over again) with their young children. It’s actually those unique renditions, tailored to the moment and the child who is listening, with all the spin-off conversations and little check-ins that makes shared reading dynamic and fun and nutritious in the ways we love. That’s why even when we have recordings of the author himself, they’re never quite as good as cuddling up with you!
So, to celebrate Very Hungry Caterpillar Day and all the benefits of shared reading here are some real excerpts of parents reading the story transcribed from the The Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development
Mom: The very hungry caterpillar Mom: Okay. In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf. Mom: Where’s the egg ? Child: it’s there. Mom: right . Mom: Where’s the moon? Mom: that’s right. okay. Child: whoa that’s a big one! Mom: okay . Mom: One Sunday morning (.) the warm sun came up and pop (.) out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar. Child: where is the egg? Mom: well it popped out of the egg. Mom: the egg is back here. Mom: right there (.) that was the egg. Child: and it popped out? Mom: well the caterpillar popped out of the egg (.) and it was a hungry caterpillar. Child: why didn’t he eat the egg Mom: I don’t know but we’ll turn the page and see if we can find out…
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Mom: …on Monday he ate through one apple but he was still hungry! Child: Monday, apple, still hungry Mom: on Tuesday he ate through two pears one two but he was… Child: still hungry! Mom: woah! Mom: on Wednsday he ate through, how many plums? Child: three plums! Mom: but he was… Child: still hungry! Mom: oh no! Mom: that sounds like daddy! Mom: on Thursday he ate through, what are those? Child: strawberries! Mom: how many strawberries? Child: one two three four! Mom: very good he ate through four strawberries but he was… Child: still hungry! Mom: very good.
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Child: he was still hungry! Child: (gasps as the page is turned) he ate some cake and he ate one ice cream. Child: and he ate one pizza. Child: and he ate one cheese. Child: and he ate some… Mom: one slice of salami. Child: one slice of salami. Child: he ate… had a popsicle and he ate some pie. Child: and he had a hotdog. Child: and he had some cupcakes. Child: and he had some watermelon. Child: and… Mom: somebody please rewrite this (laughs)
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Mom: let’s see what he ate on this page. Mom: on Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake (.) one ice cream cone (.) one pickle (.) one slice of (.) swiss cheese (.) one slice of salami (.) one lollipop (.) one piece of cherry pie (.) one sausage (.) one cupcake and one… Child: I love cupcakes. Mom: you do? Child: I love cupcakes. Mom: I know you do. Mom: and one slice of watermelon. Child: I like watermelon too! Mom: wow he ate so much. Mom: that night he had a stomach ache. Mom: I guess he would .
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Mom: …he stayed inside for more than two weeks (.) then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon and pushed his way out and… Mom: he was a beautiful butterfly. Child: blue yellow. Mom: you gonna tell me all the colors that are on here? Child: blue red yellow purple yellow (.) red red blue. Mom: what about this color? Child: mm green. Mom: mm maybe. Child: black. Mom: right. Mom: was he beautiful? Mom: hmm… Child: his head is small. Mom: yeah his head’s pretty small.
These are the types of extra-textual conversations we love to learn about. If you have a child 5 or under and would like to join us in our storybook reading research projects please let us know at childresearch@scu.edu or sign up here.