Eric Carle

This will not the be the only Eric Carle Post. Just like with all of the greats I put it off and put it off to get the perfect idea for a post... but enough with that. I will simply start anywhere and write this short but not unimportant one here. I recently made a new picture book friend and he is wanting to create a meaningful picture book. The kind that will stay with you for longer than just the time you read it. The kind that will continue to occupy your thinking and might become a part of you eventually. 

I am almost done reading Eric Carle's fantastic autobiography (autobiography and so much more) "The Art of Eric Carle" and there is a part I have come across that I find to be really simple and graceful and most of all true on the subject of 'How to make a Picture book'.

Here are a few lines from the book:

"If a recipe on How To Make a Picture Book were possible, it would go something like this: Take thirty-two pages (most picture books are thirty two pages). Confine your story within these limitations. These limitations are of a technical nature. Your creative possibilities are endless. It helps to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Here are some very basic ingredients to a few of my books:

In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I started with the holes - accidentally, playfully. The holes were the given. Now the caterpillar needed to be invented. 

In the Very Busy Spider, the spider was the given. Now all I needed was the raised web. 

In The Grouchy Ladybug, I wanted to deal with the concept of size. Now all I needed was an interesting story. 

To these basic ingredients the following are added: Your love for animals, big and small.
Your appreciation of Nature. 

Your father's love and his sense of passing on existing knowledge.
[sic]

You include your likes and dislikes, your view of the world, your feelings."