Eric Carle has died but The Very Hungry Caterpillar endures on page and stage

His death has come just weeks before a new CDP Theatre production of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show will have its Canberra season.

Associate director Liesel Badorrek said: "It's very sad news."

But, she said, Carle's work would endure.

"People will still be reading the stories and watching the show in another 50 or 100 years," she said.

She was one of the generations who grew up with Carle's books, especially The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

That picture book, about a caterpillar who eats a wide variety of foods over several days - with holes in the pages to represent this - before turning into a butterfly, has sold more than 50 million copies and been translated into 66 languages since it was published in 1969.

Badorrek said: "I read it as a child, I read it to my son, who's now 16, and it won't be too long before I read it to my grandchildren."

She said Carle's book endured because of "the simplicity of the story and the style of the artwork - it's very bold with simple shapes and it's not confusing to small children, it's very intriguing".

It's also educational, she said. The book teaches children about colours, days of the week, foods and the life cycle of a caterpillar.

This production of the 2016 stage show - adapted by Jonathan Rockefeller with a score by Australian composer Nate Edmondson - features four stories, including The Very Busy Spider and 10 Little Yellow Ducks.

But, Badorrek said, the caterpillar was definitely the show's "rock star" whose appearance was always eagerly awaited by audiences.

They were mostly children, ranging from infancy to seven years old, she said, but: "The funny thing is watching grandparents watch their grandchildren watch the show.

"Everyone grew up with it."

She said the show's text was taken directly from the books and the 75 puppets that bring the stories to life were designed to look just like Carle's illustrations.

The production team was also behind Australian adaptations of other children's books such as The Gruffalo, and The 13, 26, 52, 78 & 91-Storey Treehouses.

Carle was born in Syracuse, New York in 1929 and moved to Germany with his parents when he was six.

He returned to the US in 1952 and worked as a graphic designer for The New York Times and as art director for an advertising agency.

Author Bill Martin Jr saw a picture of a red lobster Carle had drawn and asked the illustrator to collaborate with him on a book.

The result, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, was published in 1967 - it's also in this production - and Carle followed it in 1968 with 1,2,3 to the Zoo.

Then came the The Very Hungry Caterpillar, followed by dozens of other books that have in total sold more than 150 million copies.

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