Author Spotlight: Eric Carle

 

Eric Carle: Children’s Author and Artist

 

Eric Carle is the author of the beloved children’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, and other popular children’s books such as “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”, “The Grouchy Ladybug”, “The Very Quiet Cricket,” “The Very Busy Spider,” and others. He was born in Syracuse NY in 1929 of German immigrants. In May of 2021, Mr. Carle passed away at the age of 91 in his home in Massachusetts. The man inspired many happy hours of sharing art and reading with thousands of children all over the world. His most famous book is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, which has sold 50 million copies world-wide, was published in 1969, and is actually the third book he had published.

As the child of German immigrants, his mother was often homesick for Germany so when Eric was 6 yrs. old the family moved back to Stuttgart, Germany. This was just before the second World War broke out. Carle’s family had many devastating experiences because of the war. His father was drafted into the German army and then was taken prisoner by the Soviets and held in a prisoner of war camp for two years. Eric, as a teen, was conscripted by the German government to dig ditches (on the Siegfried Line) where he saw prisoners of war who were also consigned to dig ditches die the very first day he was out digging. His family had to hide in basements because of bombing raids, they were shot at, and after a bombing raid on Stuttgart, his house was the only one left standing in the town, minus its roof, doors, and windows. When Eric’s father was finally released as a prisoner of war, he only weighed 85 pounds and Eric remarked that he came home a broken man. Carle longed to return to the USA someday because he said he had happy memories from that time in his life. He finally did return, in 1952 and worked in New York City for many years.

Eric worked as a graphic designer for the New York Times and eventually became the art director for an advertising agency in New York City, as he had art training from his education in Germany. A friend of his saw an advertisement he did and was so impressed he asked Eric to help him illustrate a children’s book, that book became “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You see?” Eric realized he had found his calling in life using his artistic style and story telling abilities and became a very popular children’s literature author and illustrator.

Illustration from the book A house for Hermit Crab.

 His unique art style features hand painted tissue paper, layered, cut, and worked into collages. It gives a distinctive flair to all his art and is instantly recognizable in his books. He mentioned that he likes to use bright colors in his art because of his memories of everything being colorless and dreary during the war in Germany. He considers his books part book and part toy because they incorporate things such as 3-d pages, holes, and sounds for a complete sensory and reading experience.

Speaking of his father, Mr. Carle has stated that his father showed him the wonder of the natural world when they used to go for long walks in the countryside together. His father would peel back the bark of a tree and show him what was underneath….As a result, he said that he “developed an abiding love and affection for small insignificant animals”.  Despite that unique aspect of his childhood, which has influenced his writing, he also has stated that he is reluctant to enjoy a good meal because it saddens him and brings to mind his father and his emaciated state when he returned home from the Soviet war camp at the end of WWII.

Thousands of children, over the years have written to Mr. Carle and thanked him for his unique books and the special way those books have touched their hearts, memories of good times together reading, being lost in a story, enjoying the bright colors of his art, making art themselves, and how they can relate to the books. They have asked him for advice and even asked if he could be their father. Of this Carle says, that the child his art and books have possibly helped the most was himself, because of the life experiences his family had during the war. Carle and his wife Barbara, founded the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art adjacent to Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass, it is the first museum in the US that is devoted to national and international picture book art.

Before I decided to do a write up on this author, I had no idea about this man’s life. My family and I have greatly enjoyed his books and still find joy sharing them with grandchildren today. I never knew about all the complicated experiences that shaped this man into what he became. The world is a better place because he overcame those challenges and shared his talent with the rest of us. I gained respect for him because of what he and his family endured, and he certainly took the lemons life gave him and made sweet lemonade. Thank You Mr. Carle. R.I.P.

 

Book Reviews for Read Your Shelves Book Challenge- the last 6.

 Book reviews for my 2021 Read Your Shelves Book Challenge continued.....the final 6 of the challenge.

So far there's been more duds then good ones this year, but I'm marching onward to beat this reading challenge and de-clutter my shelves.

 

The 12^th Enchantment by David Liss (1/2 star)

Feels like rip off of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, but poorly done. Trite, unlikeable, and uninteresting stereotype characters, abusive relatives, I couldn’t get past the first two chapters. I won't dignify it with a picture of the cover. (Put in the circular bin.)

 

Patrick by Stephen R. Lawhead (3 1/2 stars)

I just finished reading an historical novel entitled Patrick, Son of Ireland by Stephen R. Lawhead. After reading this book, which was a good story (but not historically accurate), it inspired me to find out more about the man. After some study and research, I find that the book is sorely lacking in actual facts and is more like the imagining of an alternate history of Patrick. There is nothing included in it about Patricks’ spiritual journey which made him become revered as a Saint and missionary, who is credited with transforming Christianity in Ireland. I am a fan of Lawhead, and have enjoyed his historical novels, but this one is a bit puzzling because it does not follow what is actually known about Patrick’s actual life, from his autobiographical writings.

The guy in the book is rather selfish, uses everyone for his own gain and then all of a sudden near the end of the story he changes to this magnanimous man, giving up wealth and position and wants to race back to Ireland to apologize to his old lover there and go back to the learning of the Druids. It was confusing. No descriptions about what caused his spiritual transformation to a Priest who went around Ireland sermonizing and baptizing thousands into Christianity, establishing churches and challenging pagan kings. It was not a story about the actual St. Patrick. It was pretty good fiction but an inaccurate biography. Read it as a story, but don’t take it as an accurate retelling of the actual St. Patrick. 

 

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (3 stars)

This book won the Pulitzer prize for historical fiction about the Civil War. It concentrates on the July 1863 battle of Gettysburg, which was a turning point in the war. It goes day by day and takes you inside the heads of the General Lee, and principal players for this battle for both the Confederacy and the North. The Confederates started out with a bang; but were unable to secure key land and hills to keep the Union at bay. The next day after reinforcements arrived for both the North and South, Confederates attacked the Union again but could not take an important piece of land called Cemetery Hill. The South was badly beaten and suffered heavy casualties in what has become known as “Pickett’s Charge”, infamous for being the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

The book was rather slow moving and flips back and forth between the leaders for the Union and the Confederates, so the reader must keep track of whose side everyone is on. The author seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time on General Lee worrying about his health. It’s heavy on nit-picky details and some gore but lacked to impress me much emotionally except for the fact that the whole story is a sad one. Many have questioned the accuracy of the information contained in the book. It explained all the mechanics and tried to get you inside the heads of those leading the charges and making the decisions but lacked any emotional punch seeming to be just a dry retelling. It was not quite what I was expecting. Maybe I would have enjoyed a book that recounted people’s personal experiences of the battle and that would probably have been more satisfying. I did not feel like I learned much from reading it except that at the time, Pickett felt the attack would not be wise and did not want to do it, but still it was done anyway. It is horrifying to imagine what it must have been like for Pickett to watch more than half of his soldiers die that day in the battle. There are more to this series of books but I will take a pass from reading them, it just wasn't that compelling. (3 stars)

 

The Source by James Michener  (4.5 stars)

This was my first experience reading Michener. This title was recommended by someone I trust, and my trust was not misplaced. I dove into this brick of a book and had second thoughts because it was over 1000 pages of tiny print and I didn’t know if I could stay with it to finish it. Right at first, I was a bit doubtful I could, so I put it aside for about 2 weeks and read some fast-moving detective stories, then I came back to it because in spite of the length, it was keeping my interest. I kept at it a little every day and before I knew it, I was done with it and wished there were more because I felt I knew the characters and experienced important events in their lives along with them. The story is told using an archeological dig in what was contemporary Israel at the time the book was written (1965). Then uses a series of flashbacks to different periods of time and the specific artifacts found at the dig. The story wraps up with the establishment of Israel as a nation after WWII.  It tells the prehistory and history of the land and the peoples who occupied it throughout the sands of time. By all accounts, this book is a typical Michener, well researched, fleshed out with details and mostly historically accurate. It’s a blend of factual and fictitious characters and though it can get a bit tedious at times its good historical fiction that can hold your interest for 1000+ pages. It tells stories from a variety of perspectives, Arab, Turkish, Jewish, and Christian, and gives an overview of the history of the land that became the nation of Israel and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people. (5 stars)

 

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (5 stars)

I put off reading this book because I knew I would cry at the end and I did not want to open myself emotionally to read it. It was wonderful, did pull at my heartstrings and is hard to describe without getting emotional. Especially relevant for those who are a spouse or a parent. An ode to the value and importance of people living ordinary lives and how, even if they think they are no one special, they can leave a wonderful legacy for their time here on earth. Just read it.

 

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Neffenigger (1star)

Unfortunately, a hook, line, and stinker of a story.

This is the second book I have read by this author. I did like the Time Traveler’s Wife so I picked this one up thinking I would like it too. The setting was intriguing, and I usually like stories with some mystery to them. Well, it started out pretty interesting, but the main characters, twins Julia and Valentina seemed a bit off from the start. They were pretty wooden and insipid and there was something wrong with the fact that even at age 21 they did not want their own rooms, still slept together, still dressed exactly the same, and did everything together. The story just got odder from there.

The men in the story are just a bunch of weaklings that are wishy-washy and seem to only care about getting in bed with someone. All except Martin, the upstairs neighbor who had OCD and could not leave his apartment. He was the only male in the story that actually cared about improving his life. His story, although interesting, really had nothing to do with the actual storyline of the twins so I wonder why it was even included.?

Robert, the boyfriend of the deceased Aunt, was just a jerk and the biggest wimp of all. He was so dysfunctional, you just hated him by the end of the book. Jack, the twins’ father, was an idiot who knew his actual wife had swapped places with her identical twin sister but still stayed with her and went along with the charade. What?

None of the characters were very likeable and they all made stupid decisions and messed up their lives even more. Near the end of the barely tolerable story, one of the twins comes up with the stupidest idea of all and Robert, the big wimp, and the selfish deceased Aunt become accomplices in the foolishness. Then, the book all of a sudden ends, leaves a bad taste in your mouth and you vow to never read another book by that author because they led you on a wild goose chase, dropped you off a cliff and wasted your time. I am not even donating the book to charity, its going in the circular file.