Arabella Miller's Tiny Caterpillar

Beautiful, colorful, simple sketch illustrations. Charming story: -- Girl finds caterpillar; girl cares for caterpillar; caterpillar grows up, ... This deserves to stand alongside Eric Carle's classic "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". All that is missing is an acknowledgement that this delightful picture-story book is an adaptation of the traditional Nursery Rhyme action song. A simple Google search reveals, for example: [...] -- "Little Arabella Miller" is a popular English nursery rhyme often sung in pre-schools. It is also an action song, sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star". The rhyme has just one verse, but there are several variants which focus on the description of the caterpillar (furry, fuzzy, woolly), and on the family members mentioned in the rhyme (mother, brother, grandmother, baby brother). Here is one variant, with actions: Little Arabella Miller (Point to child: or pat child on the head) Had a fuzzy caterpillar (Tickle palm with two fingers) First it crawled up on her mother (Walk fingers up left arm) Then upon her baby brother (Walk fingers up right arm) They said, "Arabella Miller! (Walk fingers up over head) Put away your caterpillar!" (hide hands behind back). The special appeal of this picture-story book adaptation is that Arabella and her family are not squeamish, and are happy to care for the caterpillar, and find out what happens to it, in time. But surely it is just as much fun, and just as educational, to sing and act out the Nursery Rhyme, AND to read and enjoy and act out the picture-story book's narrative of the caterpillar-butterfly life-cycle. If you buy the book, why not add a page with your own copy of the Nursery Rhyme, and do BOTH (reading, and reciting/singing/enacting) with captivated youngsters? Highly recommended!

This book is beautiful and it has a wonderful story. The illustrations are cheerful and bright. The back pages offer all the facts on the life cycle of caterpillars, which is a bonus. That way a child gets both a story with a main character to identify with and a subtle science lesson in metamorphosis. Our little friend Finley loves it -- and he has begun to hunt for a caterpillar of his own.