[HN Gopher] Eric Carle has died
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Eric Carle has died
Author : divbzero
Score : 271 points
Date : 2021-05-27 03:25 UTC (19 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| aynyc wrote:
| My kids love his books.
|
| FYI: the broadway production of his books is very well done as
| well.
| afro88 wrote:
| I loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a kid, and now read it to
| my 6 month old before bed. He loves it too, smiling while playing
| with the little mini pages and me poking his finger into the
| holes as the caterpillar chomps through his feast. Precious
| moments.
|
| RIP Eric Carle
| _Microft wrote:
| In German, it is called _Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt_ which,
| translated word-by-word, means _The small Caterpillar Never-
| sated_. I always found that an especially cute name.
|
| How is The Very Hungry Caterpillar called in your language? Did
| the translator have similar freedoms with the name?
| lemming wrote:
| In Spanish it's _La oruga muy hambrienta_ which is a straight
| translation of the English.
| Svip wrote:
| The Danish title is very similar to the German and Dutch ones,
| _Den sultne larve Aldrigmaet_ meaning _The hungry larva Never-
| sated_.
| _Microft wrote:
| I just looked up Norwegian and it's _Den lille larven
| Aldrimett_ there.
| roywashere wrote:
| Dutch: Rupsje Nooitgenoeg (Little Caterpillar Neverenough)
| coccinelle wrote:
| French seems to be La Chenille qui fait des trous: The
| Caterpillar That Makes Holes. Very underwhelming compared to
| the German or Dutch translations if you ask me!
| ugh123 wrote:
| The 3-book box set, along with Lonely Firefly and Busy Spider, is
| still going strong with my 3 year old.
|
| Although I try to limit the Caterpillar book now since my son
| will start demanding cake, ice cream, sausage, etc after we read
| it. Makes bedtime routine really hard
| pizzabearman wrote:
| My mom read this book to me as a child all the time. 15/20 years
| later I ran across it some how. I remembered my brain doing some
| kind of "summer salt jump flip", awakening some hidden part of my
| brain recognizing those plums, apples, caterpillar, etc. The
| illustrations are so colorful and distinct.
| nineplay wrote:
| There are very few justifications for the existence of Twitter
| but one is undoubtedly Eric Carle's feed. He posted new drawings
| for every holiday.
|
| https://twitter.com/ericcarle?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcam...
| jedberg wrote:
| That Twitter is awesome, thanks!
|
| I was a little disappointed in twitter marking his "happy
| Hanukkah" drawing as "sensitive content"
| SirYandi wrote:
| Was censored for me as well. Very strange. I'd guess it has
| been reported a few times.
| freepalestine wrote:
| Yeah well you know Jews are literally Nazis now because
| they want one country where Muslims also allowed to live
| and Muslims already eradicated Jews from the rest of the
| Middle East and Arabia and will kill them if they try to
| emigrate, but they're the victims
|
| Free Palestine! /s
|
| The best part of this post is camping the nickname.
|
| Death to jihadis!
| freepalestine wrote:
| Judaism is tantamount to Nazism in the eyes of Twitter
| afro88 wrote:
| Strange, it's not marked sensitive in mine. Are twitter
| personalising the labelling of tweets now?
| keithnz wrote:
| I'm in NZ, and not marked sensitive for me
| jedberg wrote:
| That would make sense but be extra funny to label a happy
| Hanukkah post as sensitive for me in particular! That would
| be a pretty broken algorithm.
|
| Unless it's per region perhaps. Are you in the USA?
| sachinag wrote:
| I'm in USA and not censored for me, although I'm logged in
| and have view sensitive content turned on
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| Thank you for that link, had no idea.
| hprotagonist wrote:
| His books are still in steady rotation at my house.
| scop wrote:
| Thank you Eric Carle.
|
| I've greatly enjoyed reading his books to my children, especially
| "The Grouchy the Ladybug" and "Papa Please Get the Moon for Me".
|
| In a similar vein, and for any curious readers out there, I was
| recently reduced to near tears reading "The Clown of God" by
| Tommie De Palo
| lanstin wrote:
| I cry every time at that one.
| bvm wrote:
| i enjoy reading to my 7 month old. she has no idea what's going
| on, but she likes being cuddled, the sound of her parent's voices
| and turning the pages. what i really enjoy is that she has no
| idea of linear narrative, so she will turn the book to the last
| page and then the first. then try to eat the book. then at some
| point cry.
|
| the very hungry caterpillar is somewhat unique in that she
| absolutely loves the illustrations, like no other book. she
| really sits still and gazes agog at them, especially that picture
| of the sun at the beginning.
| heydenberk wrote:
| Books for babies and toddlers are pretty much all the same: cute
| drawings and simple sentences. On some level, they're all goofy
| and inane. There's no accounting for taste to be sure, but I am
| especially baffled why some of these books grow tiresome after
| two read-throughs, while you are delighted to see your toddler
| reach for certain books again and again. Eric Carle's books are
| all in the latter camp for me. The illustrations are beautiful,
| of course, but something about the stupidly simple prose and
| narrative just ineffably works. I'm grateful to him.
| danbolt wrote:
| I've heard that a lot of children's media often looks to help
| encourage pattern recognition (eg: counting the Very Hungry
| Caterpillar's foods or the structure of a Blue's Clues
| episode), but I don't know how true that is.
| NoNotTheDuo wrote:
| I've heard a corollary to this. Kids often love to watch/read
| the same thing because they recognize the pattern and know
| what is coming up next. This gives them comfort and a
| routine.
| ftio wrote:
| I echo all of this, including in appreciation of Carle's work.
| Despite the simple language, there's a sophistication and depth
| to the best children's books that mediocre ones lack.
|
| My favorite to read to my little guys is _This is Not My Hat_
| by Jon Klassen, which is one of the funniest, most subtle ones
| we've come across.
| person22 wrote:
| Adding to the recommended books: 'Bats at the Beach' by Brian
| Lies.
|
| My kids never got tired of me reading it and I never got
| tired of reading it. They loved that book. The illustrations
| are extremely well done. Who would draw bats wearing
| floaties?
| peterstensmyr wrote:
| Highly recommend "the wolf, the duck, and the mouse" which is
| written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen. Absurd
| and funny.
| citizenkeen wrote:
| Sam and Dave Dig a Hole is hilarious for the kid and
| absolutely terrifying for the parent.
| jbrooksuk wrote:
| It's so good to see Jon Klassen getting recognition on HN!
|
| His books are superb! Short, sweet and extremely funny :D
| agentwiggles wrote:
| Jon Klassen is great! Simple yet beautiful art and stories
| that are fun for both the parents and the kids. I love the
| final line of This Is Not My Hat, which works on two levels:
| "Nobody will ever find me."
| WalterBright wrote:
| I enjoy Winnie the Pooh as much today as when I was 6. But for
| different reasons. Today I enjoy the sly humor in it.
|
| It takes real talent to appeal to both young and old. The early
| Spongebob cartoons were like that, Bugs Bunny, and the early
| seasons of The Simpsons
| bambax wrote:
| My kids had a book about a wolf who made soup with a stone,
| "Une soupe aux caillou".
|
| The wolf travels to other animals' homes; the animals are
| afraid at first, but they let him in because he says he only
| wants to make soup.
|
| He comes in, boils water in a big pot, puts his stone in. The
| animals want to help with the soup, and so they suggest other
| ingredients. The wolf says "well, sure, you can add that if you
| want".
|
| They drink the soup together. Then the wolf gets up, takes his
| stone back from the pot, and leaves.
|
| The process repeats for 8 or 10 different animals, and that's
| it.
|
| It's a fantastic book. We must have read it hundreds of times.
| wikibob wrote:
| Which is in turn an adaptation of the parable of the stone
| soup
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup
| bambax wrote:
| Wow, thank you... did not know that...
| quadrangle wrote:
| I don't like this idea of grouping them all as similar. There's
| a huge range of toddler-focused books, some are great, some are
| awful, most are in-between.
|
| Brown Bear, Brown Bear from Carle himself is mediocre junk.
| It's just colors and animals, and has no character, no
| narrative, no arc.
|
| The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar is an amazing, astounding
| masterpiece. It is usually printed with a sort of dynamic
| tactical approach with different page sizes, holes in the
| pages, the story has a real arc, it teaches biology, it
| carefully works in numbers and days of the week and the idea of
| time frame... it's a true stand-out.
|
| Most of Carle's stuff is somewhere in the middle, though he has
| a few other superb ones.
|
| Just like art for older audiences, there really is a range. You
| could say that all movies are the same: people having conflicts
| and doing stuff. On some level, they're all dramatic and
| simplistic.
|
| It's not mere taste. What makes a great book or movie for any
| age is not total relativism.
| jacobolus wrote:
| _Brown Bear, Brown Bear_ is an excellent book for very young
| children (say, under 2 years old). It's not a deep book, but
| it is not trying to be.
|
| It has attractive clear illustrations of one animal per page,
| a simple repeating structure with only a few new words each
| page, nice rhyme/meter. Its structure involves repeatedly
| anticipating the next animal, which makes it easy to
| memorize.
|
| It is a book my kids enjoyed "reading" aloud to themselves at
| age ~2 before they could fully remember the content of more
| complicated picture books.
|
| * * *
|
| Of course, this isn't the _only_ type of book small kids
| should be listening to, and in the genre of extremely simple
| picture books there is a lot of abject garbage.
| chasd00 wrote:
| for me, it was much easier to read books like Little Blue Truck
| or Goodnight Moon night after night to my kids because they
| rhyme. I could memorize the poetry and read it as my boys went
| to sleep while half-asleep myself.
| IggleSniggle wrote:
| This one line about hubris enters my thoughts unprovoked, an
| internal reproach, on occasion:
|
| --------
|
| He _saw_ a puddle and he _tried_ to swerve--
|
| Into the mud rolled the big fat truck,
|
| and his big important wheels got STUCK
| fortylove wrote:
| Even then, his heavy duty dump truck tires were stuck down
| deep in muck and mire.
| WJW wrote:
| I'm not a native English speaker but even I can just
| _hear_ the metrum in that sentence. Very cool.
| croutonwagon wrote:
| My wife has a masters in reading and language arts in early
| childhood education. Which means shes also a LOT better at
| reading to the kids than me.
|
| What i never realized was that a LOT of these books, Eric
| Carles are in that camp, are using words chosen to teach kids
| basic language skills and sentence formation. The ones that
| dont really employ a lot of those learning mechanisms, seem to
| be the ones that we grow tired of quickly and hit the back of
| the stack.. Im sure Nostalgia is part of it too.
|
| Dr. Suess is similar and very heavy on sounds/aliteration. But
| you would be surprised to know that many of his books actually
| use very few words. Like Green Eggs and Ham is like 50 pages of
| sentence after sentence but only uses like 50 words total or
| something like that (i could be wrong, its one of the most
| famous ones that like that).
|
| Honestly when I read to my young kids, i would get tired of the
| same books over and over and would just kinda make up the
| story. Now that my kids are learning to actually read, I dont
| do that anymore.
| ftio wrote:
| YES -- you're nailing something that I've felt but haven't
| been able to articulate.
|
| The worst children's books are ones that don't roll off the
| tongue, that use too-complicated phraseology, that through
| circumlocution challenge the rea--well, you get it. They trip
| me up!
| triska wrote:
| This is similar to ABBA songs: Superficially, they seem very
| simple, but they are quite complex internally, and when
| something is repeated, then it is often repeated in a
| slightly different way.
| ska wrote:
| > What i never realized was that a LOT of these books,
|
| This is part of a broader phenomenon, where most things are
| more complicated than you first think when you dig into it.
| This leads some people to assume work in areas they don't
| understand is easy.
| [deleted]
| csours wrote:
| I constantly assume that parts of my own job are easier
| than they turn out to be.
|
| 'That should only take 30 minutes' - winds up taking 2
| calendar weeks.
| croutonwagon wrote:
| I have to typically impress in my first line support guys
| that "if you don't want people to think your job is
| simple, then you shouldn't assume the same of them"
|
| Heck I get people that think MY job is just clicking next
| on installers, there are entire swaths of things we do
| that others simply aren't aware of because it's
| transparent to them. I even had one lady question how
| much I made based on that very assumption. (She's not a
| very nice person in general anyway)
| garyrob wrote:
| I agree. I read his books, especially that one, to each of my
| kids, and still have very fond memories
| meristohm wrote:
| Some books I'm willing to read repeatedly: I Am A Bunny, and I
| Am A Mouse, both by Ole Risom and illustrated by Richard Scarry
| and John P. Miller, respectively, in a realistic style, as if
| they actually made the time to observe the plants and animals;
| Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown; Stack the Cats, by Susan
| Ghahremani; and Bear and Wolf, by Daniel Salmieri. The latter
| is my favorite so far because of this line, among others:
|
| "Bear and Wolf walked through the quietly falling snow, using
| their eyes, and ears, and noses to take in the snowy woods."
|
| Bear is female, Wolf is male, and they are at home in the cold,
| as we can be if we allow ourselves to acclimate. They explore
| together, go they separate ways, and meet again in late spring.
| navbaker wrote:
| On the page in Goodnight Moon where the mouse is peeking out
| from behind the bowl full of mush, our 3-year old has started
| shouting at it "NO NO YOUNG MOUSE, GET AWAY FROM MY MUSH!!!"
| Makes me laugh every time.
| kenjackson wrote:
| While Goodnight Moon is everyone's favorite, there is
| something about "The Little Island" by Margaret Wise Brown
| that captured me as a parent. I loved reading this story
| out loud. The writing is poetic and flows off the tongue.
| The story has some nuance, that to this day I'm still not
| sure I fully grasp. This is my favorite book to give as a
| gift to new parents.
| bkandel wrote:
| I love the book, but honestly who sleeps with a bowl of
| oatmeal on their nightstand?! Never understood that.
| thanatos519 wrote:
| Who says "Goodnight nobody?"
| fortylove wrote:
| But what's the meaning behind "goodnight noises
| everywhere"?
| navbaker wrote:
| I've wondered that for a while, especially combined with
| the previous pages saying "goodnight stars, goodnight
| air"
| CyberRabbi wrote:
| There should really be a black banner for this, dang?
| anonu wrote:
| I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to my toddler. It really
| resonates with her because of all the fun pictures of food!
|
| What strikes me about a lot of children's book is that they often
| talk about metamorphosis - which is a strange and beautiful
| concept. But we rarely encounter it in real life, other than
| figuratively.
| freediver wrote:
| Very grateful to Eric Carle and his contribution to the world.
|
| Alan Kay said "People who are really serious about software
| should make their own hardware.". Makes me think that people who
| are really serious about writing books for children, should do
| their own illustrations.
| nescioquid wrote:
| Though by analogy, people who are really serious about writing
| books for children should _really_ make their own children, no?
| jacobolus wrote:
| While some excellent children's books are one-person projects,
| most of my favorite children's books have separate author /
| illustrator. There is no indication that they are less
| "serious". You can find a large pile of terrible books with any
| possible authorship structure.
|
| I do get the sense however that picture books are usually
| better when the author and illustrator collaborate closely.
| freediver wrote:
| Could be as well, but as an aspiring childrens' book author,
| this just made me think there may be one more skill I will
| need to acquire.
| rohansingh wrote:
| > Books for babies and toddlers are pretty much all the same:
| cute drawings and simple sentences. On some level, they're all
| goofy and inane.
|
| If you're tired of that, I'd highly recommend Happy Dog the Happy
| Dog:
|
| https://topatoco.com/collections/ryan-north/products/qw-happ...
|
| It's based on this comic:
|
| https://qwantz.com/index.php?comic=484
| apetresc wrote:
| The one sample page it shows is: "When you grow up, your
| parents may reject your sexuality".
|
| I don't think this is actually a book for little kids.
| QuesnayJr wrote:
| The ad copy says "It is not actually for children?"
| syntheticnature wrote:
| The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA is worth
| a visit: https://www.carlemuseum.org/
| rietta wrote:
| He wrote or illustrated some of our daughter's favorites. It's
| amazing to me just how classic these are. Something I had no idea
| about until becoming a parent. RIP Sir, and thank you for being
| part of our child's education.
| jgon wrote:
| The books have been a staple in our household as well, and I echo
| other people is saying that this a loss of a true talent. One
| thing I thought I'd add to the conversation is that a series of
| very well done short films were made based on some of his books.
| If your little ones are begging for some screen time and you're
| wary of what youtube will unleash on them, I found these to be a
| really fun series that keep to his unique and beautiful
| aesthetic, and at least my kids loved to watch The Very Hungry
| Caterpillar on the screen and then read it together afterwards,
| and maybe your children will feel the same!
|
| The Very Hungry Caterpillar
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY
|
| I See a Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPpkaldk84Y
|
| Papa, Please Get The Moon for Me
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGqAw7UM6qo
|
| The Very Quiet Cricket
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGqAw7UM6qo
|
| The Mixed Up Chameleon
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrmZeXf7ScU
|
| "In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf..."
| strictnein wrote:
| Like many others here, I spent several years of my life with his
| books. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is obviously his best known
| classic, but in our house "Dream Snow" was the most popular.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Snow-Eric-Carle/dp/0399235795/
|
| It's a great Christmas/Winter book. Definitely get the bigger,
| hardcover version. The illustrations are great and at the end of
| the story your kid will get to push a button and make some
| peaceful musical notes play.
| gabagool wrote:
| This title should say that he died. Right now it boils down to
| "Eric Carle" which does not signify a news event.
| airstrike wrote:
| +1. 'Eric Carle, writer and illustrator of The Very Hungry
| Caterpillar, has died' is shorter than the current title so it
| should work.
| duxup wrote:
| Mr Rogers visited him once:
|
| https://www.misterrogers.org/videos/eric-carle/
| robmaceachern wrote:
| "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" will always have a special place in
| my heart. I can't begin to describe how fond my memories are of
| my two year old son reciting the words on the Saturday page for
| the first time:
|
| "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 slice of watermelon.
|
| That night he had a stomach ache."
|
| Such a precious memory for me. Thank you Eric Carle. RIP.
| philshem wrote:
| TIL, the stomach-ache scene was forced by the publisher...
| https://twitter.com/unfortunatalie/status/139787073540681728...
| hyko wrote:
| Wow.
| philshem wrote:
| Can no longer edit, but might be a fake parody interview from
| the Paris Review. Sorry.
|
| https://twitter.com/buckwilson/status/1397930890446229504
|
| https://twitter.com/AviTheNaftali/status/1397928222809939968
| Stratoscope wrote:
| I loved Eric's books, and my daughters loved having me read the
| books to them some 20 years ago.
|
| It's funny, as I read Eric's obituary I can hear my own voice
| reading those books to my daughters so long ago.
|
| RIP Eric, and thank you for bringing us so many good times.
| frakt0x90 wrote:
| I absolutely loved that book as a kid and still remember the art
| very clearly 25+ years later. Crazy how such simple things can
| have such long lasting impressions.
| sangd wrote:
| I have this book and I have never looked him up until seeing this
| post today. All of my three daughters love this book and I didn't
| quite understand why as I grew up in a different culture. RIP
| Eric. You've done great work for this world!
| vlunkr wrote:
| I didn't really understand why kids like it so much at first,
| but here's what I think, in very few words it explores lots of
| things: counting, days of the week, day/night cycle, lots of
| foods, separating fruit from junk food, and of the lifecycle of
| butterflies. Kids will find something engaging in there.
| nend wrote:
| Plus the holes. Kids can't seem to stop themselves from
| interacting with it.
| MandieD wrote:
| It's the first book I remember reading in both English (as a
| small child) and German (in college), and now my German-American
| baby is growing up with it in both languages.
| navbaker wrote:
| We have a small collection of his other books that are favorites
| with our 3 and 5 year old kids. "Pancakes, Pancakes", "The Tiny
| Seed", and "A House for Hermit Crab" in particular are regular
| reads at bedtime.
| dvaun wrote:
| Interesting. My oldest also loves all three of these books,
| while his younger brother loves "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".
|
| They're great books to make funny sounds with. They're also
| great for asking our kids questions about the stories.
| sen wrote:
| The Very Hungry Caterpillar is probably the single most important
| kids book in my extended family. It was the first book I got as a
| kid due to my dad loving it, and Mum sewed me a little toy which
| was my favourite toy for many years.
|
| It the became a "thing" where it was the first book we got for
| every kid born in my extended family, and now that I have my own
| kids 40+ years later it was the first I got for them too. They
| both know it by rote, have the toys, had the bed sheets,
| everything. They're now in the early years of school and still
| absolutely love the story and have the posters in their rooms
| despite them being "old" for it.
|
| RIP Eric. You've left an amazing mark on the world.
| Pxtl wrote:
| What's fascinating about the Very Hungry Caterpillar was that
| the "stomach ache" and nice green leaf was forced upon him by
| his publisher. He wanted it to be "caterpillar eats lots of
| silly things because he's hungry, becomes huge, becomes
| butterfly".
|
| The moralizing "nice green leaf" was neither his idea nor
| desired.
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(page generated 2021-05-27 23:00 UTC)