Do you suppose we’ll ever have a national holiday celebrating Dr. Seuss? I mean, we have National Hotdog Month.
Dr. Seuss taught me to read. Nowadays early readers are abundant, but I don’t remember any books but Dr. Seuss’s from my preschool days. Were there any others?
My sister inherited the family collection, but her children are old now, so I’m thinking maybe I’m due for another turn with them.
I’d be hard-pressed to single out a favorite. I liked them all: the bright colors, even if there were only two; the made-up silly words; the rhymes; the funny stories. But I have strong memories of a few in particular. One is, I think, a lesser-known Seuss tale: I Wish That I Had Duck Feet.
I guess I always had a keen interest in animals, so it makes sense that I’d be drawn to a book about a kid wishing to have various animal parts. I wished for a few myself, though never for that long, long tail.
The thing that I remember most, though, was thinking that the boy in the book got it wrong in the end. It’s not better to just be ourselves; who was he kidding? It would be far better to have an animal part or two, provided you chose the parts wisely. It would be even better to have animal parts you could take off and put on. That’s the way it was in my book, you see.
You know what I wanted? Monkey feet and a telescoping giraffe neck. What, I ask you, is the down side to those?
Is there a lesser-known Dr. Seuss book that stands out for you? Which one?
Categories: Reading
Yertle the Turtle was my favorite. I could recite it before I could read it. I love Dr. Seuss!
Does it count if it’s not technically a Dr. Seuss book, but it is from that series of I Can Read All By Myself books? If that’s the case, then The B Book ranks up there for me. Just last week I was at the bus stop and a father and I started reciting it from memory, alternating pages. It was a hoot!
Ha – all I could see on the facebook post was …”My siste…” so of course I had to see why you were talking about me! Those books and many others are here – they were obviously among our favorites as worn as they are! My kids read them too. They are ready for another generation or you!
Yertle wasn’t in our collection, so I didn’t know it until later. And I don’t know The B Book at all!
I think I’ll write “My siste…” in all my posts, right where the FB excerpt cuts off. 🙂
I don’t know The B Book, either. The I Can Read All By Myself series is really good.
My brother and I quote Yertle to each other often- joined by my nephews who are now parents themselves.