Eric Carle, the author and illustrator of children’s classics like The Hungry Caterpillar, has published a new picture book meant to educate children about the surrealist art movement of the early 20th century. The Nonsense Show will be released on October 13.

“Children can handle this, and they laugh,” said Carle, 86, to the Wall Street Journal.

Since the release of The Hungry Caterpillar in 1969, Carle’s later works—which include over seventy books—have emphasized art history; he also wrote The Nonsense Show in this vein.

Carle’s high school art teacher, Herr Krauss, educated Carle about the Surrealism movement, despite it being forbidden in Nazi Germany, where Carle and his family lived at the time.

The Nonsense Show may be his last work, he says, although Ann Beneduce, Carle’s longtime editor, disagrees.

“He’ll say his whole life’s work is finished,” but within a week or two, “He’ll say, ‘I have an idea I’d like to run by you.’ And, there’s the start of another book.”

Carle’s commitment to arts education inspired him and his late wife, Barbara “Bobbie” Carle, to found The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., which hosts art workshops for local youth.

The museum recently received a $2 million donation, which will go toward educational programming for its 50,000 annual visitors, said executive director Alexandra Kennedy.

Image credit: Penguin Young Readers