Words that repeat or have alliterations make books fun!
I shifted the days of the week to make The Very Hungry Caterpillar more fun to read
As a child I LOVED, and I still love the Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle – Happy 40th Anniversary! It is a simple and sweet book with fabulous illustrations. I have an Arabic translated version and it is no where near as fun to read as the English version. This is partly due to the fact that my Arabic is so terrible but it’s mostly because the translator did not put any thought into translating it for Arabic readers.
One very simple change, that makes it more fun to read, is to shift the days of the week so that they match the numbers on the fruit (for example on Tuesday (the third day – يوم الثلاثاء ) the caterpillar eats three plums (ثلاث خوخات) Can you see the similar words in there?! Wow! Reading can be fun!
In Arabic, Sunday is the first day, Monday the second until Thursday the 5th day which lines up great with the 5 different fruits. A missed opportunity to show the relationship between the two and add some repetitive sounds to the story. I also swap out a few names for foods for words we more commonly use at home.
I love to read my version at Arabic story times. It works great with non-Arabic speakers since they usually already know the story. (Keep a watch on the events calendar for times).
And here is where you can find copies of the Arabic version – as well as my transliterated ArabishWay version!
https://arabishway.com/portfolio/book-hungry-caterpillar/
