The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Stories by Eric Carle Review

Each week the children and I visit the library for story and music time, a little coloring, new book choices and each child gets to choose one DVD. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories DVD was available this week at my local library and since my children love this story by Eric Carle, the Disney DVD seemed to be a good movie viewing choice.  This DVD includes 5 videos based on stories written by Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Papa Please Get the Moon for Me, The Very Quiet Cricket, The Mixed-Up Chameleon, and I See a Song.

The DVD version of each of the stories brings to animation the illustrations of these well-loved books, with a symphony of music as the "soundtrack." Bonus features include a game, "Eating through the Week."

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the story of a caterpillar who wakes up to a very hungry day. After eating his way through the week, he curls up in his cocoon and wakes to become a beautiful butterfly.  

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, is a story of a girl who love the moon so much she asked her father to get it for her and a father who loves his daughter so much he does it.  After waiting for the moon to get small, Papa brings it home for his daughter to sing and dance with.

The Very Quiet Cricket desires to make friends, but his wings are too small and he can't find ways to communicate with those friends he encounters. Will he learn? Watch and see.

The Mixed Up Chameleon is the story of a chameleon who learns a little something about just being himself, as he attempts to "become" each of the animals in the zoo.

I See a Song is a music video designed for children to see a variety of shapes and colors through the use of music.  The music is very soothing and of a symphony concert nature.

My Viewpoint:  The Very Hungry Caterpillar is my children's favorite. They watched it twice the first day we had it. I love that they can learn the days of the week, counting and even color recognition in this story and dvd.  The "I See a Song" was not so interesting to them (their least favorite), until I encouraged everyone to dance to the music instead of attempting to watch what to me was a "children MTV video" of classical concert music viewed through a kaleidoscope. The Very Quiet Cricket was delightful with the various creepy crawlies, such as the crickets, praying mantis, bumblebee, and more. They found the animals in the zoo fun and interesting and we "acted" our way through the zoo animal sounds and colors (the 3 yr old loves to call them out as the chameleon would change from green to yellow to brown). All in all, there is something in this video for everyone, parents and children alike and would also be a wonderful, soothing, night time "story" before bed.