Top 100 Children’s Books

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

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  • Title: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  • Author and Illustrator: Eric Carle
  • Published: 1969
  • Main Characters: A very hungry caterpillar

Short Synopsis of the Story: This is the story of the transformation of a little egg, to a caterpillar, a fat caterpillar, a cocoon and finally a beautiful butterfly.

The story starts with our observing a tiny speck of an egg glistening on a leaf in the moonlight. The next morning, which happens to be a Sunday, the sun comes up and the little egg hatches into a tiny caterpillar. The caterpillar is very hungry and each day of the week it eats something different. On Monday it eats one apple, on Tuesday it eats two pears and so on until by the end of the week it has grown into a very fat green caterpillar.

In the next stage of the caterpillar’s life we notice its transformation into a cocoon where it lies for two weeks until its final emergence as a beautiful butterfly.

Notes: This was one of the first board books I bought for my baby daughter. The illustrations are brightly colored and very attractive. Apart from learning about the amazing transformation of an organism, the book teaches us about different fruits and food, the numbers and the days of the week amongst other things. The best thing about the book are the little holes built into the fruits and foods that the hungry caterpillar nibbles through. The book is a wonderful tactile as well as visual aid for children. This is a classic book to be read again and again.

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

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  • Title: Green Eggs and Ham
  • Author and Illustrator: Dr. Seuss
  • Published: 1960
  • Main Characters: ‘Sam I am’, unnamed character (also the first person narrator).

Short Synopsis of the Story: This is a story told completely in repetitive rhyming verse in the nonsensical style typical of Dr Seuss’s storytelling. In the story, the narrator is encouraged by ‘Sam I Am’ in multitudinous ways to partake of a meal of green eggs and ham.

The narrator declines the offer quite resolutely stating:

“I do not like them,

Sam-I-am.

I do not like

green eggs and ham.”

To further tempt the narrator, Sam-I-am offers the narrator a choice of locations for eating the green eggs and ham. The locations range from in a house with a mouse, to in a box with a fox, to in a car or a tree or even a train. In all the instances the narrator declines the offer of green eggs and ham to be eaten in those locations.

But Sam-I-am persists. Perhaps the narrator would eat green eggs and ham in the dark, or in the rain, or perhaps in the company of a goat or on a boat?

Alas, in all the offered situations, the meal of green eggs and ham is again declined.

To this Sam-I-am replies:

“You do not like them.

So you say.

Try them! Try them!

And you may.

Try them and you may, I say”

To this entreaty what can the narrator do, but comply?

And to his great satisfaction finds … that he does indeed like green eggs and ham!

Notes: The tale is told in repetitive rhyming verse and is remarkably composed of a mere fifty word vocabulary. That Dr. Seuss can construct an enjoyable story with such an economy of words is worthy of high praise. The limited vocabulary and the repetition of words makes this an ideal book to encourage children to read by themselves. It is quite enjoyable to read and follow the pictures and verse and the rhyme is quite addictive.

What is the moral of the story you ask?

Perhaps, it is written to encourage people to try something out before they completely say no to it.

But green eggs and ham? Now what is that?

I really haven’t got a clue 🙂