Reading a book 200 times is a surefire way to find out whether you love it or want to throw its rhyming llama couplets into the diaper pail. Children's books especially do a tricky dance for an audience of squinty-eyed parents and wide-eyed tots: the best ones, like a syringe of infant-suspension Tylenol, have a little something for the parent at the end. These are the ones we are celebrating in This Book Belongs To — the books that send us back to the days of our own footed pajamas, and make us feel only half-exhausted when our tiny overlords ask to read them one more time.
Among iconic children's books, none has focused so entirely on the types of foods a desperate mom might scarf down while enduring a five-hour cluster feed as Eric Carle's classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Centered on the character of an egg who becomes a caterpillar who (spoiler) becomes a butterfly, it's a metaphor for pregnancy and a rebuke to #cleaneating. It is, like all the best literature, available in a board book.
While Carle's classic acrylic-washed collages are timeless, we felt the need to revisit the story from the far side of the hipster food revolution. Basically, we asked ourselves, what would the hungry caterpillar eat if he found himself at Whole Foods?
This is what we think.
Happy New Year, you guys.
