eric carle is a very popular children's book author and illustrator. he has been illustrating and writing for over thirty years. his best-known book is the very hungrey caterpillar. he has developed a whole series from that book. the very busy spider tells the story of a spider busily working on a web. the book web is shown as it grows, and children can touch the pages and feel the raised lines of the web. the very quiet cricket is about a very shy and quiet cricket, who doesn't know how to use his wings to chirp. in the end he does chirp and the book chirps out loud as well. the very lonely firefly tells the story of a firefly who flies around trying to find some friends. he tries to make friends with every source of light he finds. in the end he finds a whole bunch of other fireflies and the last page lights up with fireflies. the most recent addition tot he series is the very clumsy click bettle. i don't know much about the story, but this book makes noise, like the cricket one, except that this book makes the click bettle sound.
carle has illustrated and authored many other books. some of his well known ones are brown bear, brown bear, what do you see(writen by bill martin jr, one of the authors of chicka chicka boom boom). this book is great for any pre-school color unit and kids love having an animal to play and act out. the mixed-up chameleon can also be used for color. a chameleon sees many other kinds of animals, each a differenct color. not only does the chameleon change his color with each animal, a different part of his body changes to be like the animals he sees as well, for example is neck grows very long like a giraffe's. the chameleon in the end learns that it is best to be himself. papa, get the moon for me is another great carle book. a little girls asks he dad to get the moon for her. while he tries to reach the moon, the reader is introduced tot he phases of the moon and the pages fold out to show the greatness of the moon. the tiny seed is one last carle book (there are too many to discuss all the good ones). a tiny seed goes through life, narrowly missing being eaten, being crushed (as a plant), and being picked (as a flower) because it is so tiny. in the end the flower from the tiny seed grows to be the biggest and most beautiful flower around.
eric carle uses tissue paper collage to illustrate his books. for his first book, he used manufactured tissue paper, but carle was unhappy with the way he was limited by colors. so he started making his own tissue paper. he takes large sheets of blank tissue paper and then he decised what color theme he wants to use. so maybe he'll pick blue and green and he'll paint the tissue paper. he'll blend them as he pleases and mybe he'll add some dots or some strips, or maybe he'll just splatter some paint on it. he also does this whole process without any story in mind. when he is ready to make a picture, he goes to the paper that he has already painted and choses which one he thinks is best for this particular picture, story, of object. if you have a chance to see him demonstrate his process sometime, take it. there are also some videos available that show how he illustrates.