A ‘Hungry Caterpillar’ Puzzle You Can Solve With Your Kids

This week’s Conundrum honors Eric Carle, the beloved children’s book illustrator and author who, sadly, passed away this week. His work explored the natural world through a bright and whimsical illustration style using layered-paper collage. There is a friendly warmth to every one of his pages.

One of Carle’s earliest and best-known works is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” which follows the adventures of a caterpillar who starts small and then gradually eats his way through a variety of foods, growing in size as he does so. Following the story, young readers learn to recognize different types of food and also practice counting — on the first day, the caterpillar eats one apple; on the second day, he eats two pears; and so forth. And in many printings, the caterpillar is shown to have literally eaten through each item, leaving a hole in the page.