‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle

As kids picture books go .. The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is one of the great ones!

Through collage style pictures, he tells the journey of the caterpillar .. right through to butterfly. Not only are the images beautiful, there is so much scope for vocabulary development … the lifecycle of the butterfly, days of the week, food types, night / day .. it’s brilliant!

With the weather being so nice here at the moment the kids are out gardening and pottering about even more, so it’s nice to read books associated with nature and the outdoors.

It’s the type of book suited to a younger child because they love the bright colours and poking fingers through the caterpillar nibble holes and also for older children who love the story itself and the wonder of the butterfly at the end!

Due to the popularity of this book, there are countless extension books … one of our favourites being this Touch and Feel Play Book. We bought it for Baby Girl for the sensory aspect but the older two love it as well. It goes through animal sounds, words, numbers and shapes (with raised pieces to trace with their finger – excellent aspect to it), colours, animals, lift the flap features and various textures to touch. We get so much use from this book!

Even though it’s a bit bigger than what I would normally pop into the nappy bag, it’s a good one because it entertains all of them .. at its best when it entertains all of them … together .. at once!!!

*Image our own