The Caterpillar Magazine
@thecaterpillarmag.bsky.social
Annual Caterpillar Poetry Prize and art & lit mag for children (2013-2023), still available online. Younger sibling of @themothmagazine.
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Hi #kidlit writers and illustrators!
We're The Caterpillar Magazine - younger sibling of @themothmagazine.bsky.social and home to the annual Caterpillar Poetry Prize, which has been judged in the past by the likes of Roger McGough, Michael Morpurgo & Michael Rosen...
Follow us for updates! 🐛
We're The Caterpillar Magazine - younger sibling of @themothmagazine.bsky.social and home to the annual Caterpillar Poetry Prize, which has been judged in the past by the likes of Roger McGough, Michael Morpurgo & Michael Rosen...
Follow us for updates! 🐛
❛ I always want the words to do what the pictures can’t do and the pictures to do what the words can’t do. So, if you get a duplication, I try to subtract what I don’t need because I believe less is more.
Children's artist and author, Marc Brown, born #OTD in 1946.
Children's artist and author, Marc Brown, born #OTD in 1946.
November 25, 2025 at 6:07 PM
❛ I always want the words to do what the pictures can’t do and the pictures to do what the words can’t do. So, if you get a duplication, I try to subtract what I don’t need because I believe less is more.
Children's artist and author, Marc Brown, born #OTD in 1946.
Children's artist and author, Marc Brown, born #OTD in 1946.
A frosty fairytale painting from The Caterpillar Archives – by Cuban-American artist Enrique Martínez Celaya and originally from Issue 25! 🌨
November 23, 2025 at 7:49 PM
A frosty fairytale painting from The Caterpillar Archives – by Cuban-American artist Enrique Martínez Celaya and originally from Issue 25! 🌨
❛ A childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.
Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren, born #OTD in 1907.
Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren, born #OTD in 1907.
November 14, 2025 at 8:25 PM
❛ A childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.
Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren, born #OTD in 1907.
Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren, born #OTD in 1907.
❛ All my paintings are the outcome of quaint and beautiful things I have seen at tucking up time... It is then that I see deep into their little minds, and I am grateful for having the receptiveness of brain to retain the dainty secrets I have seen.
Mabel Lucie Attwell, who died #OTD in 1964
Mabel Lucie Attwell, who died #OTD in 1964
November 5, 2025 at 7:02 PM
❛ All my paintings are the outcome of quaint and beautiful things I have seen at tucking up time... It is then that I see deep into their little minds, and I am grateful for having the receptiveness of brain to retain the dainty secrets I have seen.
Mabel Lucie Attwell, who died #OTD in 1964
Mabel Lucie Attwell, who died #OTD in 1964
Happy Halloween witches, warlocks and vampires!
Here's some spookily good artwork by Janet Hill from Issue 34 of The Caterpillar. 🎃
Here's some spookily good artwork by Janet Hill from Issue 34 of The Caterpillar. 🎃
October 31, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Happy Halloween witches, warlocks and vampires!
Here's some spookily good artwork by Janet Hill from Issue 34 of The Caterpillar. 🎃
Here's some spookily good artwork by Janet Hill from Issue 34 of The Caterpillar. 🎃
We've got plenty of tricks and treats in our archives – like this spooky selection from Doug Cushman, from Issue 30.
👻 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
👻 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
October 27, 2025 at 7:23 PM
We've got plenty of tricks and treats in our archives – like this spooky selection from Doug Cushman, from Issue 30.
👻 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
👻 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Quick! Before October is over for another year, we wondered if anyone has a favorite Autumn poem to celebrate the season? 🍂
Here's a classic from Robert Louis Stevenson, to kick things off...
Here's a classic from Robert Louis Stevenson, to kick things off...
October 22, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Quick! Before October is over for another year, we wondered if anyone has a favorite Autumn poem to celebrate the season? 🍂
Here's a classic from Robert Louis Stevenson, to kick things off...
Here's a classic from Robert Louis Stevenson, to kick things off...
As Halloween draws near, don't forget that sometimes monsters get lonely too.
Just like in this poem by Myles McLeod, from Issue 23...
🐍💕 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Just like in this poem by Myles McLeod, from Issue 23...
🐍💕 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
October 15, 2025 at 5:05 PM
As Halloween draws near, don't forget that sometimes monsters get lonely too.
Just like in this poem by Myles McLeod, from Issue 23...
🐍💕 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Just like in this poem by Myles McLeod, from Issue 23...
🐍💕 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Swimming into the weekend – and all the adventures it will hold...
🐻❄ 'Dark Waters', from The Caterpillar Archives by Scottish artist Lucy Campbell #ArtistSpotlight
🐻❄ 'Dark Waters', from The Caterpillar Archives by Scottish artist Lucy Campbell #ArtistSpotlight
October 10, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Swimming into the weekend – and all the adventures it will hold...
🐻❄ 'Dark Waters', from The Caterpillar Archives by Scottish artist Lucy Campbell #ArtistSpotlight
🐻❄ 'Dark Waters', from The Caterpillar Archives by Scottish artist Lucy Campbell #ArtistSpotlight
Hello October! Something brilliant and slightly spooky to welcome in the season, from Issue 17 of The Caterpillar – a fairytale collage by Kimberly Karr-Wlassak. 🌛 #ArtistSpotlight
October 1, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Hello October! Something brilliant and slightly spooky to welcome in the season, from Issue 17 of The Caterpillar – a fairytale collage by Kimberly Karr-Wlassak. 🌛 #ArtistSpotlight
'The Caterpillar is the sort of magazine I would have devoured as a young person’ – Liz Brownlee
Hungry for funny poems, mind-blowing stories, and art that will make you want to pick up a pencil? Back issues from just €5, this way...
🐆 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Hungry for funny poems, mind-blowing stories, and art that will make you want to pick up a pencil? Back issues from just €5, this way...
🐆 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
September 16, 2025 at 8:11 PM
'The Caterpillar is the sort of magazine I would have devoured as a young person’ – Liz Brownlee
Hungry for funny poems, mind-blowing stories, and art that will make you want to pick up a pencil? Back issues from just €5, this way...
🐆 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Hungry for funny poems, mind-blowing stories, and art that will make you want to pick up a pencil? Back issues from just €5, this way...
🐆 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Long week? Us too. We think maybe we've all already Gone Bananas...
Poem by Sophie Kirtley, originally from Issue 19. 🍌
Poem by Sophie Kirtley, originally from Issue 19. 🍌
September 10, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Long week? Us too. We think maybe we've all already Gone Bananas...
Poem by Sophie Kirtley, originally from Issue 19. 🍌
Poem by Sophie Kirtley, originally from Issue 19. 🍌
❛A children's writer should, ideally, be a dedicated semi-lunatic, a kind of poet with a marvelous idea, who, preferably, when not committing the marvellous idea to paper, does something else of a quite different kind, so as to acquire new and rich experience.
Joan Aiken, born #OTD in 1924.
Joan Aiken, born #OTD in 1924.
September 4, 2025 at 8:45 PM
❛A children's writer should, ideally, be a dedicated semi-lunatic, a kind of poet with a marvelous idea, who, preferably, when not committing the marvellous idea to paper, does something else of a quite different kind, so as to acquire new and rich experience.
Joan Aiken, born #OTD in 1924.
Joan Aiken, born #OTD in 1924.
A Sunday gift – beautiful art by the uber talented Hannah Lock. 'Gathering Flowers', from Issue 32. 💐 #ArtistSpotlight
August 31, 2025 at 7:52 PM
A Sunday gift – beautiful art by the uber talented Hannah Lock. 'Gathering Flowers', from Issue 32. 💐 #ArtistSpotlight
Reposted by The Caterpillar Magazine
In case you missed it – yesterday we announced Evie Wyld's winners of The Moth Short Story Prize 2025.
Catch Clare Roche's first prize-winning story '(Un)Tethered' as part of The Irish Times' Summer Fiction series – in print and online: bit.ly/untetheredroche
Catch Clare Roche's first prize-winning story '(Un)Tethered' as part of The Irish Times' Summer Fiction series – in print and online: bit.ly/untetheredroche
August 28, 2025 at 6:19 PM
In case you missed it – yesterday we announced Evie Wyld's winners of The Moth Short Story Prize 2025.
Catch Clare Roche's first prize-winning story '(Un)Tethered' as part of The Irish Times' Summer Fiction series – in print and online: bit.ly/untetheredroche
Catch Clare Roche's first prize-winning story '(Un)Tethered' as part of The Irish Times' Summer Fiction series – in print and online: bit.ly/untetheredroche
❛ I thank you for / your point of view, / but I'll do me / and you do you.
Some wise words to take us into the weekend - from our Spring 2021 issue.
🌈 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Some wise words to take us into the weekend - from our Spring 2021 issue.
🌈 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
August 22, 2025 at 5:26 PM
❛ I thank you for / your point of view, / but I'll do me / and you do you.
Some wise words to take us into the weekend - from our Spring 2021 issue.
🌈 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Some wise words to take us into the weekend - from our Spring 2021 issue.
🌈 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Artist spotlight! We just LOVE this brilliantly gross piece by Freya Hartas, an illustrator based in the UK who specialises in #kidlit books. Originally from Issue 35...
August 18, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Artist spotlight! We just LOVE this brilliantly gross piece by Freya Hartas, an illustrator based in the UK who specialises in #kidlit books. Originally from Issue 35...
❛ When people look at my work, they often say, “Your picture is so good. I can’t even draw a straight line.” I think everyone can learn to draw. The important thing is to keep trying, keep drawing.
Illustrator Alice Provensen, born #OTD in 1918.
Illustrator Alice Provensen, born #OTD in 1918.
August 14, 2025 at 8:00 PM
❛ When people look at my work, they often say, “Your picture is so good. I can’t even draw a straight line.” I think everyone can learn to draw. The important thing is to keep trying, keep drawing.
Illustrator Alice Provensen, born #OTD in 1918.
Illustrator Alice Provensen, born #OTD in 1918.
Ideal for young lovers of stories and art, and as aids for teachers to inspire, choc-a-bloc as they are with poetry, stories and stunning artwork...
And now from just €20 for five issues, including postage!
✨️ bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
And now from just €20 for five issues, including postage!
✨️ bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
August 8, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Ideal for young lovers of stories and art, and as aids for teachers to inspire, choc-a-bloc as they are with poetry, stories and stunning artwork...
And now from just €20 for five issues, including postage!
✨️ bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
And now from just €20 for five issues, including postage!
✨️ bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
❛ The sea's a salt blue dish. The sun's a golden peach.
Here's some #MondayMotivation, even if you're very far from the sun and sand. Mary Green's gorgeous 'The Sea's a Salt Blue Dish', originally from Issue 21. Illustration by Fred Calleri.
Here's some #MondayMotivation, even if you're very far from the sun and sand. Mary Green's gorgeous 'The Sea's a Salt Blue Dish', originally from Issue 21. Illustration by Fred Calleri.
August 4, 2025 at 8:15 PM
❛ The sea's a salt blue dish. The sun's a golden peach.
Here's some #MondayMotivation, even if you're very far from the sun and sand. Mary Green's gorgeous 'The Sea's a Salt Blue Dish', originally from Issue 21. Illustration by Fred Calleri.
Here's some #MondayMotivation, even if you're very far from the sun and sand. Mary Green's gorgeous 'The Sea's a Salt Blue Dish', originally from Issue 21. Illustration by Fred Calleri.
❛It’s a mistake to think that a book for little children has to be like a glass of water so that every single element in it is accessible and clear and understood by a three-year-old. If they don’t understand something, they will ask.
Goodbye to the great Allan Alhberg. #RIP
Goodbye to the great Allan Alhberg. #RIP
August 1, 2025 at 7:56 PM
❛It’s a mistake to think that a book for little children has to be like a glass of water so that every single element in it is accessible and clear and understood by a three-year-old. If they don’t understand something, they will ask.
Goodbye to the great Allan Alhberg. #RIP
Goodbye to the great Allan Alhberg. #RIP
A summer poem for bright days and looooooong nights by Robert Louis Stevenson.
What's your favourite summer poem to while away the sleepless hours? 🌇
What's your favourite summer poem to while away the sleepless hours? 🌇
July 24, 2025 at 5:01 PM
A summer poem for bright days and looooooong nights by Robert Louis Stevenson.
What's your favourite summer poem to while away the sleepless hours? 🌇
What's your favourite summer poem to while away the sleepless hours? 🌇
We like to think we're the ideal holiday companion - perfect for small suitcases, glove compartments, and fold-down tray tables...
Take us on your next adventure? 🌞 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Take us on your next adventure? 🌞 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
July 15, 2025 at 8:47 PM
We like to think we're the ideal holiday companion - perfect for small suitcases, glove compartments, and fold-down tray tables...
Take us on your next adventure? 🌞 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues
Take us on your next adventure? 🌞 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues