My weekend in Massachusetts

Dear Friends,

I have just returned from a short trip to western Massachusetts. It was a very full and busy few days. I was happy to be in my old studio again, to see all my books and papers stored there. I even made a few small pieces of abstract art, in between the excitement of scheduled events.

I attended the beautiful wedding of the daughter of dear friends, which was held at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Here I am with the bride and groom and a young friend.




The next day, I went back to the Museum for the book signing, which was attended by more than 500 visitors and museum members some of whom traveled quite a distance to be there. It was great to be at the Museum again (I am impressed by the main hall every time I walk inside), to see old and new friends and to be welcomed by such a kind and patient crowd.

Here I am signing books:





And here I am after the signing with Stacy Gabrielle from Crayola, and Alix Kennedy, Director of The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. I was very honored to receive a giant Crayola crayon in my new favorite color: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" green. The only other special crayon color of this kind that Crayola has created was for Oprah! And it was the color purple!



And this is me in The Very Hungry Caterpillar seat that was sent to the Museum by my German publisher Gerstenberg Verlag:



It was a very memorable time, truly a pleasure, and I am glad to be home again with Bobbie surrounded by the hills of North Carolina.

Eric Carle

Cats and Dogs

Animals are a constant source of comfort and fascination, the ones in the wild and the ones we live with in our home. I love all kinds of animals but I am especially fond of cats. There are cats and dogs in many of my books. When I lived on my own in New York City, I had two cats named Fifi (black, long-haired) and Mitzi (a tiger cat), who I wrote about in my book Flora and Tiger. My wife, Bobbie and I had a lovely cat named Annie (grey, long-haired) for many years. You may have also noticed a white dog in my stories. Our beloved Tock, a white Samoyed, was the inspiration. (By the way, Tock was named for the dog in the book, The Phantom Tollbooth, written by my friend Norton Juster.)



We do not have a pet right now, but when in Florida we are visited regularly by a stray cat, named by the neighbors - Whitey - who we very much enjoyed seeing each day.

Dreams and Realities

Sometimes dreams become real tangible things, like books or buildings.

A dream: It is night time. In the distance, between the hills, some stars fall from the sky. They come closer and closer. Finally a star hits me. It does not hurt. Just the opposite. The star takes me by the hand and together we float toward the heavens.

A reality: Later, I created my book "Draw Me A Star" based on this dream.

Another dream that became a reality:

In 1992 my wife and I were invited to Japan by my Japanese publisher in Tokyo. This visit deeply impressed us. Shrines, museums, Kabuki theater and incredible sushi. And we were introduced to a Picture Book Museum. Chihiro Iwasaki (1918-1974) was a leading and beloved picture book artist. She left her work to her son Takeshi Matsumoto. "Is it possible to see Chihiro’s pictures?” Neighbors asked. Takeshi hung his mother's pictures on the wall of his living room. That was the beginning. Then he attached a small museum to the house. Years later, he built a 20,000 square foot stunning museum in Azumino, two hours from Tokyo.

And that was the beginning of our dream, still unconscious, like a seed whose roots invisibly took hold in the soil. In 1995, we seriously and with great enthusiasm began our plans. Seven years later the doors opened to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Seven years just like in fairy tales. This sounds almost euphoric. But we had many doubts and sleepless nights. Are we on the right path? We are without experience. The scale of the undertaking at times seemed overwhelming. But in the end we said yes. And so our dream became a reality.

I am thinking about our dream these days, as I plan my trip to the Museum later this month.

Book signing

Dear Friends,

I will be traveling to Massachusetts next month and visiting with friends and family. And on Sunday, August 23rd at Noon, I will be making my annual appearance at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art to sign books and say hello to visitors.

For more information about this event as well as many other happenings at the Museum, including an exhibition that has recently opened of my friend Tomie dePaola's work, please visit the Museum's web site.

I hope you will join us!
Eric Carle

End Sheets

The colorful patterns on the inside covers of my books are called end sheets or end papers. An end sheet is like a theatre curtain in that it appears at the beginning, before the play starts, and at the end, after the play has finished. I pay great attention to the design of my end sheets; they often reflect something about the book and set the tone for the story.

I am especially fond of the end papers in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, pieces of colorful paper with holes in them, because they remind me of how the book started: from punching holes with a hole puncher.

For me, designing the end sheets for each book is part of the challenge and the pleasure of creating a book.

Here are some examples:

From Head to Toe



Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me




1,2,3 to the Zoo



Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?

Farm Summer

In the second year of the Second World War — I had just turned 12, my maternal grandmother remembered from her youth a farm girl she had known. Off went a postcard: could Eric spend the summer vacation with her? Yes, came the reply. A small suitcase was packed. I traveled 4 hours by train and walked another 2 to a tiny village consisting of perhaps 8 farms. Maria, my grandmother’s friend, was an elderly unmarried woman living with her 90 year old widowed father, whom I called Grandfather.



Their living quarters, barn and stables were all in the same building, under one roof. They owned 3 cows, 2 pigs, a dozen chickens with a proud rooster and several bee hives in the abutting garden. In the garden grew all their vegetables and fruit that they needed.



There was no indoor plumbing. There was a water pump inside the kitchen. No hot water, no bathtub, no water closet, no cars, no refrigerator. I had a guest bed in the old man’s room. I still remember him snoring dreadfully and getting up in the middle of the night to use the chamber pot that would be emptied in the morning.



Maria worked until midnight baking bread, darning socks, washing and cleaning and then getting up at 4 in the morning to take her old bicycle and pedaling to the nearby forest to pick mushrooms or berries. Not for us, these were washed and carefully packed and delivered by her on the bicycle to the nearest city to be sold to the “rich city folk”.



My summer vacation with Maria and Grandfather will remain one of the most glorious experiences of my youth. Learning to milk a cow. Watching the bees around their hives in Maria’s garden. Searching for eggs in the barn. Picking wild blueberries and cranberries. Feeding noisy pigs. Quietly spending hours in an abandoned stone quarry where I watched frogs and salamanders in puddles of water. Observing the local cheese maker making cheeses. And, of course, enjoying the robust, yet delicious meals.

All this and more in this sheltered and pastoral place while a murderous war was ravaging Europe.

-Eric Carle

Pictures from Portugal

I received many lovely e-mails and letters this spring including these beautiful photographs of pictures from a book created by school children in Portugal.

I hope you will enjoy these too!
Eric Carle