Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, is one of my all time favorite children’s authors. From Green Eggs and Ham to Sneetches to the Grinch, he has entertained me for years. There was a time, in college, where I kept Green Eggs and Ham in my locker at the Music Building and did dramatic readings of it periodically when people were stressed. At one point, I had it memorized and didn’t even need the book but what would it be without his hilarious character drawings?
Here are just a few fun Dr. Seuss Facts (most of these take from Wikepedia) :
1. Theo LeSeig was Theodore Geisel’s pen name when he wrote the prose, but someone else did the illustrations. (LeSieg is Geisel backwards)
2. Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now was turned into a polemic – Richard Nixon Will You Please Go Now by Geisel in response to the Watergate scandal.
3.There is a Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield Massachusetts (the place of his birth).
4. Though Dr. Seuss did not begin writing stories with a moral in mind, many of his stories do make commentary on social or political issues. Many of these as relevant today in 2009 as they were in the mid 1900s when they were written. (The Lorax (environmentalism), Sneetches(anti-consumerism) and The Grinch (anti-materialism) being three of my very favorite ones).
5. There is a fun website called Art of Dr. Seuss that has different categories of his art displayed.
6. Dr. Seuss collaborated with animator Chuck Jones to bring the Grinch and Horton Hears A Who to animated classics.
7. Shortly before his death, when Ted was asked if there was anything left unsaid, he pondered the question and finally responded: “The best slogan I can think of to leave with the U.S.A. would be: ‘We can . . . and we’ve got to . . . do better than this.”
In Kindermusik, we spend much time exploring rhymes, phonemes, and made up silly syllables. Dr. Seuss was an absolute master at this. Just read – Fox in Sox, There’s a Wocket in My Pocket, or Oh The Places You Go and you will see the creativity of his linguistic twistings. This week in class, I will be sharing some of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories. I have also put a list of other fun Dr. Seuss reads (as if all of them aren’t) in the Suggested Reading widget in the right side bar of this blog.
1 Comment
April 15, 2009 at 9:40 am
The style of writing is quite familiar . Did you write guest posts for other blogs?