Eric Carle 2009, celebrating the first day of spring. He also designed a "Google doodle" with autumnal theme for the use in Southern Hemisphere. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" was chosen by Jumpstart for Young Children as the book for Read For the Record 2009 on October 8 of that year. The program encourages educators, librarians and parents to try to have as many as possible read the same book on the same day all over the world. Carle has won numerous awards for his work in children's literature, including the Japan Picture Book Award, the Regina Medal and the Lifetime Achievement Award
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