Dear Friends,
It has been a great pleasure and privilege to work with my Japanese publisher Kaisei-sha over the years. Our relationship began in the late 1960's, when my editor Ann Beneduce brought with her on a trip to Japan, a copy of my yet to be published book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Because of its special features, the die-cut holes in the fruits and foods and the graduated, shortened pages - Ann had been unable to find a printer in the U.S. It was Mr. Hiroshi Imamura, then president of Kaisei-sha, who found a way to print The Very Hungry Caterpillar in Japan and who embraced the challenge it took to make this book a reality.
Now The Very Hungry Caterpillar is turning forty and while there is a great deal to celebrate this anniversary year, I especially want to honor and remember Mr. Hiroshi Imamura, who passed away in November, 2008. For his kind and generous effort, I am deeply grateful. We will always remember him with great fondness and admiration.
Eric Carle
What a wonderful tribute to your friend.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! Even with all of your successes, you still remain a gracious person who appreciates those who have impacted your career.
ReplyDeleteI too am glad Mr. Imamura conquered the challenge of printing my daughter's favorite book! This is a lovely remembrance of the man who helped bring a very beloved hungry caterpillar into homes and schools around the world!
He looks so sweet in this picture with a pop-up book that I don't have! I'll have to check this pop-up book out! Thank you for the wonderful post.
Dear Mr Eric Carle,
ReplyDeleteI turned 40 this year, just like your book. I was a migrant child and I borrowed this book and I remember my mother trying so hard to read to me in English.
Each page with a hole, how exciting to see a hole and how unique. And how increadibly hungry the caterpilla was. Just like me!
Of all the books its my favourite. But a funny thing happened. I attended an Accelerated Literacy course to teach children about reading. Your book was there!
We were told by the coordinator of the course that children's authors go to great lengths to think of the exact words, and how hard it is to write a book. How several authors re-write over and over.
I had no idea about this. I always thought you just wrote it from the heart. Picked up your pen and wrote it before dinner.
So I am curious, as a teacher who will be sharing your book with other children, where, what, how did this happen.
And I am ever so grateful that you did and that Mr Hiroshi could make so much of a difference. Because those holes were my most thrilling memory, how the caterpillar ate thought the very book my mother red.
Thankyou dear Mr Carle, muchas gracias!
Massiel
Good info thanks for this guys. I will forward on to a few friends I know that are interested in this too.
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