The Top Books By Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle's world-famous simple, hopeful story has become the most read children's book in Britain.

Its vivid and colourful collage illustrations are iconic, and it is a must have picture book for children.

"Do you want to be my friend?" asks a little mouse of a horse, a peacock, an alligator and others in this classic and charming story. Only when he meets another little mouse, is the answer unequivocally, "Yes!"

A little cricket has lost his song - he rubs his wings together and nothing happens. He sets off to find his voice and meets all kinds of creatures who make all kinds of noises, but still he can make no sound at all. One day he meets a special friend, another cricket and this time, when he rubs his wings together, he makes "the most beautiful sound you have ever heard." The sound, produced by a hidden chip, reinforces the joyful conclusion to the cricket's dilemma.

"Ducks overboard!" shouts the captain, as a giant wave washes a box of 10 little rubber ducks off his cargo ship and into the sea. The ducks are swept away in various directions. One drifts west, where a friendly dolphin jumps over it. A whale sings to another. But as the sun sets, the 10th little rubber duck is left all alone, bobbing helplessly on the big wide sea.

Monica wants the moon to play with, so her Papa sets out to get it. It isn't easy to climb to the moon, but he finally succeeds -- only to find the moon is too big to carry home.

When Mrs. Seahorse lays her eggs, she does it on Mr. Seahorse's belly! She knows he will take good care of them. While he swims waiting for the eggs to hatch, he meets other underwater fathers caring for their babies.

The chameleon's life was not very exciting until the day it discovered it could change not only its color but its shape and size, too. When it saw the wonderful animals in the zoo, it immediately wanted to be like them -- and ended up like "all" of them at once -- with hilarious results.

A light-up surprise for the youngest child from Eric Carle, creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. As the sun sets a little firefly is born. The very lonely firefly sets off into the darkening sky, flashing its light as it searches for other fireflies. It sees many lights - including a light bulb, headlights, the reflecting eyes of a dog, cat and owl and finally some fireworks glittering and shimmering - until at last it finds the firefly friends it was looking for. Now the firefly isn't lonely any more. The joyful conclusion of this delightful story is brought vividly to life with tiny flashing lights on the final page to delight young children.

Early one morning a little spider begins to spin her web on a fencepost. In this multi-sensory book, children can feel the pictures aswell as see them, while they hear or read the easy rhythmic text.

The bad-tempered ladybird picks fights with every animal he meets, but soon learns the importance of friends and turns into a far nicer, happier bug.

When the tiny seed is blown away from its parent plant, it travels a very long way - overseas, deserts and mountains. The tiny seed survives the hazards of the journey and finally falls onto fertile earth. It grows and grows, becoming the tallest, biggest flower for miles around. Then one day the wind blows and thousands of the flower's seeds begin their own journeys.