Seuss Fans Rejoice!

Even though Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, died more than twenty years ago, new work of his continues to be published. The latest is a recently discovered "lost" manuscript--with illustrations!--titled What Pet Should I Get? The book features the same brother and sister protagonists who appeared in One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and was apparently written sometime between 1958 and 1962. 

Published by Random House Children’s Books, What Pet Should I Get? will be on bookshelves on July 28th of this year. At least two more books are in the works, all based on materials uncovered in the good doctor's home. Mark your calendars, Seussians!

Fall Ahead!

Fall is right around the corner--next month, folks--and that means crisp apples in the farmers' markets, little and not-so-little ones traipsing back to school, and, of course, new books hot from the presses (or fresh through the Internet). This fall's output promises some enticing reads. Here are a few I'm especially looking forward to curling up with:

I'll start with a picture book. One thing that always makes me happy is a new book by Amy Schwartz. Her Bea and Mr. Jones is one of my all-time favorites. Her latest is a tribute--in rhyme--to the things that make her happy. Among them: "fuzzy sweaters, long letters, slippery floors, dinosaurs." Pub date: October 7

And yet another Dr. Seuss book has been "found." This collection is a follow-up to 2011's The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories. I wasn't all that taken with it (read my review here; there's a reason stories are "lost") but, still, new stories from the great Seuss is always a cause for celebration. Pub date: September 9

Yipee-Ki-Yay! Kate DiCamillo has started a new series of chapter books for beginning readers. Tales from Deckawoo Drive will feature characters from DiCamillo's previous series about Mercy the pig. The first book stars Leroy Ninker, a would-be cowboy who works at the concession stand at the Bijou Drive-In Theater. Illustrations are by Chris Van Drusen.

Pub date: August 26

Readers of this blog will probably be more familiar with Cece Bell as the author/illustrator of the endearing beginning reader The Sleepover, starring best friends Rabbit and Robot (read my review here). Bell has also written and/or illustrated several picture books. El Deafo is a departure, a graphic novel memoir about her struggles with hearing loss at an early age. 

Pub date: September 2 

Gallimaufry Friday

Gallimaufry Friday is a new feature at the Cath in the Hat. As word buffs probably know, gallimaufry, which originally referred to stew, means a motley assortment, and that's what I'll be offering at the end of each week, a collection of odds and ends that made me purr.

What the Dickens! Tuesday, February 7th, was Charles Dickens's 200th birthday. You can join in the celebration by visiting the British Museum's site for original source material concerning one of the greatest novelists of all time. If you feel up to the challenge, you can also take this quiz from the Guardian, but beware, to do well you really have to know your Dickens.

For Dr. Seuss fans (of which I am one), take a gander at this collection of some of his advertisements. I'm especially partial to his rendering of hell. Doesn't Satan look a bit like the Grinch?

Garth William's illustrations for Charlotte's Web can't be separated from the text, at least not for me. Here are some of his original sketches. The image of Fern cradling Wilbur has been my favorite ever since I first read that amazing book as a child. Naturally I wanted my own little pig. I think it's the reason I so love pugs. They remind me of piglets.

Janice Voss, a space shuttle astronaut and scientist, died on Monday at the age of 55. Among her many accomplishments, she was one of only six women to venture into space five times. As I was reading her obit in the New York Times, I learned that what inspired her career in science was Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, which she first read as a six-year-old. What a fitting tribute to this remarkable book, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.




I'll end with a bit of fun. My sister was visiting last weekend and she turned me on to "What's Your Blues Name?" Mine is Sticky Fingers Thomkins. What's yours?

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories

Lost stories by Dr. Seuss! When I first heard that seven of his stories, previously written for magazines in the early 1950s, were to be collected in one book, I was as excited as a Zax making tracks in the prairie of Prax. Last week I finally got my hands on a copy. I read the stories, read them again, and...was left decidedly underwhelmed.

Reviews of The Bippolo Seed  rave about how wonderful the stories are. So maybe it's me. And I didn't find them charmless, not at all. But when compared to his later work, they fall short. The stories have many of his trademarks--catchy rhymes, wacky names, zany humor, rollicking illustrations. What's different are the plots. The storylines, each of which begins with an outrageous premise, take the reader to the edge of the cliff, and then stall. Some of the endings are downright unsatisfactory.

Take "Tadd and Todd". The two are twins, "and they were alike as two peas in a pod." Then one day Tadd dares to differenciate himself from his brother. No matter what he does, though, Todd copies him. The plot advances in typical Seussian fashion, ending with the pair facing each on stilts both in outrageous costumes. Todd tells Tadd that he can't win. No matter what he does "you'll never look different, whatever you do." Surprisingly, Tadd accepts this and gives up his quest to be unique. I'm sure Seuss meant the message to be: Accept yourself for who you are. Yet Tadd doesn't come to this realization on his own. His brother forces it on him. More importantly, why shouldn't a twin be unique? I was left wondering how the later Seuss would have resolved this tale. Not so tamely, I think.

"The Bippolo Seed" is the strongest story in the bunch. A duck finds a seed that will grant him a wish when planted. At first the duck is content to wish for enough duck food to feed himself for a week. Then a cat wanders by and convinces the duck to up the ante. Before long, the greedy pair are padding the wish with everything they can imagine wanting. Before they can plant the seed, it slips from the duck's grasp and lands in a nearby river. Greed gets its comeuppance.

Don't get me wrong. This collection will amuse fans of Dr. Seuss. Just don't expect the buried treasure promised by Charles D. Cohen, the Seussian scholar who wrote the introduction. I find it telling that it's written for adult aficionados and not children, the ones the good doctor wrote the stories for in the first place.

The Bippolo Seed and Other Stories
by Dr. Seuss
Random House, 68 pages
Published: 2011

Twenty Years Ago Today . . .

Theodor Geisel died. Pay tribute to him by rereading your favorite Dr. Seuss book. Mine? The Sneetches.

Happy 107th, Dr. Seuss!

Today, March 2nd, would have been the 107th birthday of Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss). In his honor, the National Education Association has declared March 2nd Read Across America Day.

So much information about Dr. Seuss is scattered on the web. I thought it would be helpful to attempt to gather the best of them here. This is a work in progress. I'll be adding to the list in the months to come, and if you come across a relevant site/blog, please let me know and I'll include it.

BIOGRAPHY

From Wikipedia

From Kidzworld

From Amazing Gallery (includes extensive chronology)

FAMOUS QUOTES

From the Quotations Page

From BrainyQuote

MUSEUMS

The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden at the Springfield Museums

FUN AND GAMES

Random House's Seussville, a fun  website for kids that includes games to play and videos to watch.

A collection of craft, game, and activity links all relating to the good doctor and/or his books.

Five ways to celebrate Seuss's B-day!

Links from Scholastic for setting up an author study on Dr. Seuss.

BLOGS

Check out ObSEUSSed a blog dedicated to all things Seuss.

VIDEOS

In this video, Anita Silvey talks about the path that Theodore Geisel took to become Dr. Seuss.

CBS News takes a look back on the Doctor's life in this broadcast.

Watch The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That on PBS.

THE BOOKS

The five best Dr. Seuss books of all time? You decide.

CRITICAL ARTICLES

Dr. Seuss analyzed for political and social effect.

The economics of Dr. Seuss from the NY Times.

The political Dr. Seuss

50 Years, 50 Words, 50 Bucks

The year 2010 is the 50th anniversary of yet another early-reader classic, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (aka Theodor Geisel). First published on August 12, 1960, the early reader has gone on to become one of the top-selling children's books of all time. Green Eggs and Ham came about because of a challenge issued by publisher Bennett Cerf, who bet Seuss that he wouldn't be able to write a book using only 50 words. (The Cat in the Hat, written in 1955, has 223 words.) The rest, as they say, is history. Not only did Seuss spin a fantastical 50-word tale about a reluctant eater who refuses to sample a dish of green eggs and ham pushed on him by the persistent Sam-I-Am, he did so using 49 monosyllabic words. (The exception is "anywhere.") Cerf paid Seuss $50, but the real winners are the thousands of children (and I include myself here) who cut their reading teeth on this delightful book.

Happy anniversary, Green Eggs and Ham!