Post­ed by Nat Bern­stein

I don’t know any­one who did­n’t grow up with Eric Car­le, whether has a young read­er or a par­ent or a grand­par­ent. Uni­ver­sal­ly famil­iar to the last half cen­tu­ry of chil­dren and those who read with them, the dis­tinct art­work and restrained text prompt­ing read­ers to turn the to the next page impact­ed if not defined how gen­er­a­tion after gen­er­a­tion learned to see the world around them: the per­son­al­i­ties of ani­mals, the adven­tures of insects, the vibran­cy of the nat­ur­al world.

As much a nov­el­ty of nos­tal­gia as a short pic­ture book for all ages, one of Eric Car­le’s most beloved char­ac­ters returns between heart-pat­terned fly­leaf pages to deliv­er a con­tin­u­ous mes­sage of love:

“You are so sweet, the cher­ry on my cake, the bees knees,” the cap­tions read. ​“You make the sun shine brighter, that stars sparkle, the birds sing, my heart flut­ter.” Who would­n’t want to share that with their love­bug, large or small?

Eric Car­le gave one of my favorite inter­views of all time in The Paris Review for Young Read­ers, Spring 2015. Every­one who has ever met or been a child should read it. And check out the Eric Car­le Muse­um, too.

Relat­ed Content:

• Michal Hoschan­der Malen: The ABC of It: Why Chil­dren’s Books Matter
• JBC Book­shelf: Valen­tine’s Day
• Lisa Alcalay Klug: Not Feel­ing the Can­dy Hearts? Turn Around Your 50 Shades of Abysmal Gray