Eric Carle

As a creator and lover of beauty, Eric Carle feels a responsibility to make art that “doesn’t pollute your eye.”

Eric Carle explains that while his final product may look simple, it didn’t start out that way.

Carle explains why some books take longer than others.

Eric Carle tells the story behind one very famous caterpillar.

Eric Carle speculates why The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been so popular.

As schools cut funding for the arts, Eric Carle sees his new picture book museum as one way to fill the gap.

About this interview

Carle opened the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts in 2002. The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer filmed the grand opening and graciously shared their interview with Reading Rockets.

Biography

Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, New York in 1929. In kindergarten, he enjoyed a classroom filled with colorful paints, big brushes, and large sheets of paper. But when Carle was six, his parents moved back to their native Germany. Young Eric had a hard time adjusting to a new culture and a first grade class with little room for creativity. Carle often asked his mom when they were going back home to New York. He dreamed that, when he grew older, he would build a bridge from Germany to America.

As a young boy, Carle loved taking walks with his father and learning about nature. But when he was 10, World War II started and his father was drafted into the army. For the next six years, their family endured many hardships. Carle’s neighborhood was bombed by the Allies and his father did not return home for years. Yet amidst the chaos of the war, Carle pursued his love for art with the support of a high school art teacher.

In 1952, after graduating from a prestigious art school in Stuttgart, Carle returned to New York. He had an impressive portfolio but just $40 in his pocket. Carle found a job as a graphic designer for The New York Times and later worked as the art director for an advertising agency. When one of Carle’s bright collages caught the eye of children’s book author Bill Martin Jr, Martin hired Carle to illustrate Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? In 1969, Carle published The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a small book that endeared him to a generation of children and adults around the world. It has now been translated into 33 languages and sold over 18 million copies worldwide.

In 2002, Eric Carle founded and opened the first museum in the country dedicated exclusively to children’s picture book art. Located in Amherst, Massachusetts, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art welcomes “children, parents, teachers, librarians, and other lovers of children’s picture book art.” In 2003, Carle became the thirteenth recipient of the prestigious Laura Ingalls Wilder Lifetime Achievement Award for his “substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.”

To learn more about Eric Carle’s life, books, and contribution to children’s literature, visit the official Eric Carle website. Eric Carle died in 2021 at the age of 91. In remembrance:

In the light of the moon,
holding on to a good star,
a painter of rainbows
is now traveling across the night sky.

Genre:

Fiction

Slowly, slowly, slowly… that’s how the sloth lives. He hangs upside-down from the branch of a tree, night and day, in the sun and in the rain, while the other animals of the rain forest rush past him. “Why are you so slow? Why are you so quiet? Why are you so lazy?” the others ask the sloth. And, after a long, long, long time, the sloth finally tells them!