Happy Birthday today to one of the greatest children's authors of all time, Dr. Seuss!! I studied his life for a Children's Literature class I taught last year and was excited to learn how he got his start as such a great writer! Actually, his name was Theodore Geisel, but because he was forced to give up his writing for disciplinary reasons for the college newspaper, he changed his name to Seuss and wrote under that pen name, and a few others, for the rest of his life. His first children's books, "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street," was rejected 27 times before it was finally published!!
Years later, his publisher at Houghton Mifflin put together a list of 348 words he felt first graders should know. He gave the list to Dr. Seuss and using 236 of those words, he wrote The Cat in The Hat! Several of his most popular books are written in this format. He later admitted that these were some of the hardest books for him to write.
Dr. Seuss has long been a favorite author of mine. Who doesn't like Dr. Seuss?! Of course, I love all his familiar stories, but there is one that may not be quite as familiar to many and that's the story, "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins." It is the story of a young boy who takes his hat off, he thinks, when the king passes, but as the king points out to him, there is still a hat on his head. The king is furious at this disrespect and orders Bartholomew to take his hat off. Again, Bartholomew does so only to find another hat on his head. The entire way to the castle, Bartholomew is taking hats off and they become more and more decorated and elegant. It's a great story and kids would love to have it read to them!
I love to find quotes from children's literature that relate to adult life and have a bit of wisdom to them. Many such quotes can be found in Dr. Seuss' books! I hope you enjoy Dr. Seuss as much as most of the world does and you take some time today to read one of his classics to the little people in your life! (Or you could just enjoy it for yourself!)
Happy Reading!
