Counting on the Caterpillar

I love high-quality children's stories. I'm a big Dr Seuss fan. Eric Carle, in a different way, also has great stories, mostly because of the unique illustrations and creative interactivity of the book. I hadn't thought too much about the content of his books, but an article written earlier this year did. This BBC Story tells the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a now-classic children's book that apparently has sold a-book-a-minute since 1969. The article points out the concepts of math, physics, chemistry, and time the simple book teaches, but it says the true message is for parents:

Like the Caterpillar, our children are embarking on a long road through life. Today, they are small and at the mercy of the world but eager to consume all around them.

So Eric's message is simple: keep stuffing them full of the important things in life and, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, they too will grow up to be butterflies every bit as magnificent as the one that flies away at the end of his tale.