<P> The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children's picture book designed, illustrated, and written by Eric Carle, first published by the World Publishing Company in 1969, later published by Penguin Putnam . It features a caterpillar who eats his way through a wide variety of foodstuffs before pupating and emerging as a butterfly . The winner of many children's literature awards and a major graphic design award, it has sold 30 million copies worldwide . It has been described as having sold the equivalent of a copy per minute since its publication . It has been described as "one of the greatest childhood classics of all time ." It was voted the number two children's picture book in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers . </P> <P> The Very Hungry Caterpillar uses distinctive collage illustrations (Carle's third book, and a new style at the time),' eaten' holes in the pages and simple text with educational themes--counting, the days of the week, foods, and a butterfly's life stages . There have been a large number of related books and other products, including educational tools, created in connection to the book . The caterpillar's diet is fictional rather than scientifically accurate, but the book introduces concepts of Lepidoptera life stages where transformations take place including the ultimate metamorphosis from' hungry caterpillar' to' handsome butterfly', and it has been endorsed by the Royal Entomological Society . </P> <P> One morning, a caterpillar hatches from an egg . He is known as the Very Hungry Caterpillar, who loves eating, and so he begins to look for some food . He eats through increasing quantities of fruit on the following five days . First it's one apple on Monday, then two pears on Tuesday, then three plums on Wednesday, then four strawberries on Thursday, and finally, five oranges on Friday . On Saturday, he eats an enormous amount of food . He eats through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon . Then that night, he gets sick with a stomach ache from over overeating (from all of those 6 days; Monday through Saturday). But the next morning, it becomes Sunday again . The caterpillar becomes much better after he eats one green leaf . Finally, he's not hungry anymore (and not little anymore). He was a big fat caterpillar . The caterpillar spins a cocoon around himself . There, inside he sleeps in it for two weeks . Later, the caterpillar emerges as a handsome butterfly with large, gorgeous, multi-coloured wings . </P> <P> In a sense the book was inspired by a hole punch: "One day I was punching holes with a hole puncher into a stack of paper, and I thought of a bookworm and so I created a story called A Week with Willi the Worm ." Carle was familiar with "differently shaped pages" from books that he read as a child in Germany . </P>

What food did the very hungry caterpillar eat
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