Junior's Top 100 Children's Books 1-10

 1 of 10 

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Puffin, £5.99)

Not many children’s books achieve worldwide sales that would humble a U2 album, but Eric Carle’s classic picture book about a caterpillar munching his way to becoming a beautiful butterfly has sold 22 million copies.

Carle had only just started out as a children’s author when he wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar in 1969. Before that, he was a graphic designer. He had been experimenting with a hole-punch in his efforts to find a different kind of children’s book and had suggested a story to his publisher about a worm eating through the pages. In the story, the newly hatched caterpillar starts to look for food. On day one he eats one piece of fruit, the next two, the next three and so on, until he reaches the end of the week, when he eats a fabulous feast of muffins, pizza and pickle. The following day he has a stomach ache! By now he is too fat to move and we wonder what is next for our hero. There’s a moment of triumph as we turn the final page and discover he has been transformed into a beautiful butterfly.

Read Junior's exclusive interview with Eric Carle

Buy The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Next page