Eric Carle art of children's books in Amherst located adjacent to Hampshire College as part of the Hampshire College Cultural Village. The Museum has welcomed more than 500,000 visitors, including more than 30,000 school children, since it opened its doors in 2002. Eric Carle has received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities including Williams College in 2016, Smith College in 2014, Appalachian State University in 2013 and from Bates College in 2007. Google paid tribute to Carle and his book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by asking him to design the logo "Google doodle", introduced on its home page on March 20,
Eric, or, Little by Little book is credited with helping to increase the popularity of the first name "Eric" in English-speaking countries — although not with Eric Arthur Blair (the writer and journalist George Orwell) who disliked his given name because of its association with Farrar's book. In later years, it fell out of favour, in part because of its religious earnestness. For example, in Rudyard Kipling's "Stalky & Co.", published late in 1899, the protagonist Beetle and his friends frequently made fun of "Eric", e.g. E. Nesbit included it in a list of didactic children's books which were "impossible to read." Eric, or, Little