Eric Carle is a famous children's book author and illustrator best known for works like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He was born in 1929 in New York City to German immigrant parents. After serving in the US Army, Carle began a career in graphic design in New York. He published his first children's book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? in 1967, which was inspired by an educational technique called picture-word induction. Since then, Carle has published over 70 books and sold over 250 million copies worldwide, making him one of the best-selling children's authors of all time.