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.