This book-and-toy giftset is one of the best ones around: not only is the book in itself a fantastic book for little ones, the soft caterpillar (18cm / 7" long) is very good quality and actually looks like the real thing in the book!
This boardbook version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar is great for little fingers and even though our copy has been lovingly gnawed, it's still in one piece. The story follows the journey of a tiny caterpillar transforming into a beautiful butterfly. After his birth the caterpillar soon realises he's very hungry and thus a quest for food begins. Each day from Monday to Friday he eats a different fruit, each day one more than the day before. The pages where the fruit are illustrated are just wide enough to fit the relevant number of fruit, so, for example, on Monday the caterpillar eats through one apple, so that page is only a few centimetres wide - it's not until Friday's five oranges that the page has become "normal size" again. Then on Saturday the caterpillar has a fantastic feast of various snacks, he develops a stomachache but gets better when, on Sunday, he eats a leaf. Then it's time for him to build his cocoon and, in the end, turn into a butterfly.
The high-point for my two little children is when the caterpillar goes looking for food, they think it's great fun! When the caterpillar gets tummyache, however, they feel so sad for him (the caterpillar's face here is heartbreaking!). It all ends well, though, and we are always left feeling very happy for the little chap.
With it's vibrantly-coloured pages and a great story, I can whole-heartedly recommend this book to all little children, especially when it comes with such a cuddly soft toy as it does here!