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"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" first edition was printed ... in Japan!

When came the time to publish the first edition of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle, the editor struggled to find a publisher in the U.S. capable of printing and binding the book as it had been designed - with perforations and pages in various widths.


In the summer of 1968, the editor visited Japan and showed samples of the book to Hiroshi Imamura, the late president of Kaisei-Sha Publishing Co., who immediately fell in love with the picture book. He leveraged his network and found a company to accept the order to print and bind the book.


Thus, the first edition of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” got this very unexpected mention: "Printed in Japan".



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