[2] His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies.

His father was drafted into the German Army at the beginning of World War II (1939) and taken prisoner by the Soviet forces when Germany capitulated in May 1945.

Carle did not care to think about it deeply and said his wife thought he suffered from post-traumatic stress: "You know about the Siegfried line?

Carle was drafted into the US Army during the Korean War and stationed in Germany[8] with the 2nd Armoured Division as a mail clerk.

[10] Educator and author Bill Martin Jr. noticed the illustration of a red lobster Carle had created for an advertisement and asked him to collaborate on a picture book.

[14] The Very Hungry Caterpillar was voted the number two children's picture book behind Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers.

[15][16] Carle's artwork was created as collage, using hand-painted papers, which he cut and layered to form bright and colourful images.

The themes of his stories are usually drawn from nature and inspired by the walks his father would take him on across meadows and through woods.

There are new people, a teacher, classmates—will they be friendly?I believe the passage from home to school is the second biggest trauma of childhood; the first is, of course, being born.

I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun.Carle and his wife Barbara Morrison founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, a 44,000 sq ft (4,100 m2) museum devoted to the art of children's books in Amherst, Massachusetts, adjacent to Hampshire College.

[26] The committee cited Carle's "visual observations of the natural world" and his innovative designs: "Taking the medium of collage to a new level, Carle creates books using luminous colors and playful designs often incorporating an interactive dimension, tactile or auditory discoveries, die-cut pages, foldouts, and other innovative uses of page space.

[33] The Frist Art Museum of Nashville, Tennessee's exhibition "Eric Carle's Picture Books: Celebrating 50 Years of The Very Hungry Caterpillar" was on display from October 18, 2019, through February 23, 2020.