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My Goodreads picture book book club is reading Dr. Seuss this month in celebration of his birthday. I purchased “Your Favorite Seuss” and love it! It’s so much fun to read a bit of history behind the stories and Dr. Seuss himself. I have also added “The Boy of Fairfield Street” to my Amazon wish list.
I have to say Dr. Seuss must be read aloud. I read “And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street” and “McElligot’s Pool” first and to myself. Though entertaining and inventive they didn’t quite hit me the same as “Green Eggs and Ham”, “Horton Hears a Who” and “Yertle the Turtle” which I read out loud to my husband and furry family member. Not sure I can put my finger on it, it was his earlier works and didn’t quite flow as well and/or I also don’t remember having read them as a child and do not have the nostalgia associated with the stories. They were still good but I can’t say I found them great.
This time around, with “Your Favorite Seuss” I not only re fell in love with the stories again but I’m amazed by their history.
“The Cat in the Hat” was commissioned and he could only use 225 words out of 400 from a 1st grade vocabulary list. AMAZING!
“Green Eggs and Ham”, is there anything more fun to read and take you back to your childhood? It was the start of my love for reading that continues to this day and he used only 50 words winning a $50 bet with his publisher when writing it!
I also had no idea, since he sneaks it into his books in such a fun way, all the great things I learned from Dr. Seuss.
The caring/protective elephant in “Horton Hears a Who” respecting all “no matter how small”.
Caring and being able to sympathize with the underdog is the theme behind “Yertle the Turtle”. Demonstrating what might occur when blindly following the tyrant of like Yertle.
The Sneetches teach an obvious lesson of tolerance, the Lorax respect for our environment and the list goes on and on. I learned them through Seuss without even realizing I was being taught and can’t wait to share them with my “someday” children.